Be Good
by Purecopy
Summary: In a world where people with superpowers known as "Quirks" exist, people look forward to the type of special ability they can possess - a world out of a fairy tale where everyone seems happy and all dreams turn to reality, but with the constant evolution these quirks undergo in every generation, who is to say a powerful quirk will not turn one into a nightmare?
1. Good First

**Synopsis:** In a world where people with superpowers known as "Quirks" exist, people look forward to the type of special ability they can possess - a world out of a fairy tale where everyone seems happy and all dreams turn to reality, but with the constant evolution these quirks undergo in every generation, who is to say a powerful quirk will not turn one into a nightmare?

* * *

 **Notice:** This is a work of fiction. I do not own anything from My Hero Academia. The OC is overpowered. The story will focus mostly on MHA casts' perspective. Main story deviation should be expected to occur. You have been informed. That is all. **Enjoy**.

 _Edit: Revision. Playing with tenses. (12-13-2019)_

* * *

 **Be Good**

 **Prelude**

 _I think I saw the devil this morning._

Shota Aizawa, the hero Eraser Head first thinks to himself soon as he arrived at the scene.

It is a gruesomely hot day for a villain attack.

In a certain city, a whole park lies decimated, replaced by the nothingness of rocks and rubble, littered by lifeless human bodies, crushed and bloody; recognizable for the most part. According from the witnesses' reports, a clash between a couple of heroes and villains has ensued prior to a loud explosion resounding, immediately followed by the ground shaking for mere seconds. And after that, not a soul has the slightest clue how the park is virtually wiped off the face of their city.

The smoke and dust clears eventually, unveiling the potential cause of the destruction - a singular child.

 _A child._

It is quite puzzling, an incomprehensible notion to suspect a frail-looking child, to dare even think capable of accomplishing such a terrible feat. It is simple to throw the blame on either the heroes or the villains for such a devastation if not for the fact that the only life remaining in that bloody artwork is a lone child - unstained, untouched, unharmed.

The stench of blood fills the air then, the sight of mangled flesh and utter obliteration; suddenly, their mind and body are crippled with raw fear, with the very idea of a small child wielding unimaginable power such as that. Subconsciously, they hear the cold whispers of self-preservation, nudging them into action, a harsh command to suppress, to destroy, to _kill_.

Then a star falls, the Symbol of Peace himself, finally entering the dreary scene.

"I AM HERE!" He shouts gleefully, proud and strong, donning a big, wide smile on his face as he lunges forward without delay, his fist poised to strike any threat to his beloved world.

However, the shock of seeing his supposed opponent catches him off guard, and he comes unprepared for what is about to unfold next. A moment of hesitation pulls his arm back, yet the wind still blows ever more viciously around them.

They think they have seen the devil, and they have.

* * *

 **Good First**

Midnight convinces Eraser Head to become a teacher, only to be continuously turned down. He tells her countless times ' _it is irrational_ ', yet he finds himself teaching at the most prestigious hero school in the country. He believes he isn't suited to be around children, let alone teach. In addition, after a certain incident, a cloud of uncertainty lingers just below his thoughts and, he feels associating with children and teenagers is a terrible idea.

"Welcome, teacher Aizawa, to Yuuei High Academy." The anthropomorphic mink says, his arms stretches wide to both sides, a polite gesture of welcoming the newly recruited hero-educator. "I am Nezu, the one who could be a dog or a mouse or a bear, but more importantly… I'm the principal!"

The man regards him for a moment, and finds his odd appearance on an elegant suit, at the very least, striking. It suits the mink, regardless of the fact that he looks largely a giant, white bipedal rodent, as befitting to his role as principal of an academy for heroes.

Aizawa considers himself a patient man, but by his logic, beating around the bush is simply irrational. "Good day to you, principal. I don't want to be rude but, let me get one thing certain," his eyes narrow, then, "You're asking me to teach while supervising a child with a destructive quirk." He states, though it sounds more of a question instead.

"I believe exposing the child to other people is vital." Nezu answers dryly. "In this school, students can freely use their quirk under the supervision of us teachers. Given the circumstances, it is more likely for the child to feel at home and be comfortable here than anywhere else."

"And when she hurts any of the students, accident or not, what then?"

"I know you're capable enough not to let this happen."

"That's irresponsible coming from you." Aizawa retorts sharply, followed by a sigh, heavy and yielding.

Nezu falls silent, his button-like eyes fixed on Aizawa's droopy pair. "You are the only one capable of sealing her quirk, the only person able to touch her without suffering repercussions, Eraser Head." He finishes, eliciting another heavy sigh from the man addressed.

"I get it but," Aizawa looks over to the young muscular man with spiky blond hair standing beside the principal, and, "Weren't you able to touch her? _You_ are the one who caught her."

The man flinches for a second, then his blue eyes look downcast. "Not really. I didn't want to hurt her, you know. She's just a kid." He opens his palm and stares at it for a moment, then closes it to form a fist, and, "I..felt a repelling force when I tried to reach her, but maybe I'm stronger than whatever barrier she has."

Silence, then they find themselves in a predicament.

Not only their suspect is a child, she also happens to possess a rather bizarre, and quite powerful, quirk. The police has decided to write the whole incident off as a mad murder-suicide stunt by the villains involved, though they are just as dead as the heroes and civilians present in, well, whatever is left of that park. Taking the child into their custody, the police has given the principal of Yuuei High Academy the task of her guardianship. Along that, the hero Eraser Head is appointed to become her warden, therapist, judge, and perhaps, her executioner.

"Devil…" The blond man suddenly mutters, and, "She's only seven, we can't label an innocent child like this. There must be a reason why it happened." He announces, exchanging looks with the principal and the new hero-teacher. "I'm sure she was just as shocked as me when she-"

"She didn't _just_ fight back, All Might. Don't act dumb, that's irrational, especially for you." Aizawa interrupts, his voice quiet and cold. "If I felt it even from a distance, then _you_ must have too, you were the closest to her - a strong _bloodlust_."

The room falls quiet yet again, because what has been said has been long unusual.

Age seven and she loses her parents, together with her innocence.

Age seven and she tastes the cruelty of life, the curse of power.

Age seven and she awakens to the ugliness of hostility, of hatred, of antipathy.

A tragic occurrence, they all brood, and if nothing is done, the chain of tragedy may only continue with her at its head.

=

Here comes the day Aizawa dreads, for he is to meet the devil then. Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi, a tall man with short black hair and a pair of dark eyes who is a member of the police force, accompanies him. While the duo makes their way to the hospital where the child is confined, Aizawa takes the time to read the papers containing information about their suspect - the fruit of the police's investigation.

Gathering intelligence about the devil has not been difficult, which they also find suspicious.

 _Karino family_.

The relatives aren't particularly hard to contact. They are plenty cooperative, willingly sharing their familiarity with the family. As their investigation progress, the relationship between their relatives has seemed sour, if instantly refusing the idea of caring for the Karino's only daughter is any indication. It _is_ favorable for the police force, but they aren't emotionless pricks. As if it isn't tragic enough to lose both parents in one day, her relatives dislike her. On the other hand, their neighbors, customers, clients and friends seem to have good relations with the family; even the child's school thinks highly of the Karinos and their child. The difference in the family's relationship between their blood relatives and their neighbors is a curious thing, but hardly counts as relevant to their investigations, leaving it as it is.

According to the records and reports, the child previously lived a normal life, entering a decent primary school in Musutufu City. Her family consists of her mother and father, and she is an only child. Both her parents possess quirks; her mother's related to psychokinesis while her father's related to magnetism. As for their profession, the mother works as a florist and the father as a mortician.

Eccentric jobs to take, Aizawa thinks, especially considering the past era they lived in - the beginning of heroics, of the superhuman society.

Continuing on, the record says that the devil's quirk manifested at the age of six - pretty late, in Aizawa's opinion. The quirk is psychokinesis-related, elaborated as 'ability to move both organic and inorganic objects to any direction desired with a touch'. Recollecting the incident, Aizawa certainly doubts the accuracy of the data they gathered.

"Something's wrong with her quirk's data." Aizawa voices, handing the documents back to the detective. "Is this all the information you can get, Tsukauchi?"

"Yes," he answers, then adds begrudgingly, "Unfortunately."

Aizawa hums lightly to that, his eyes forward when he asks, "...About her relatives, did they offer any rational reason why they refused custody of the child?"

"The child has no grandparents on both sides, and the remaining relatives are the elder sister of the father, and the younger sister and brother of the mother. They have their own families to take care of, and from the looks of it, the child's mother side couldn't be more hostile."

"Hostile…?"

"From the sound of it, they, uh, the relatives on both sides have this strange mutual dislike to one another. None of them wanted to take in the child simply because 'either parent's blood was running in her veins'." Tsukauchi sounds just as confused as he looks, nervously laughing it off like some bad joke. "I _am_ curious but, I'm not sure how significant it can be to us right now."

"It _is_ a little strange." Aizawa admits, his fingers holding his chin as he vocalizes his thoughts, "If the relatives, who are siblings of the parents no less, dislike the other, then why marry? I thought the family's blessings are imperative before marriage can take place?"

"Perhaps they were rebels?" Tsukauchi offers, a playful grin playing on his face. "You know how crazy teenagers can get, or even young adults. I hear love can drive anyone mad."

Aizawa snorts. "Hmph. How irrational. You believe that sham? If love is so powerful, why can't they forgive their siblings and accept the child?"

Tsukauchi shrugs. "Then again, maybe this is just some family feud."

"And how long do family feuds last? If the child's grandparents - _their_ parents are dead, shouldn't they have sympathy for the kid? She lost both parents too early."

"That, I cannot answer."

Their discussion ends as the hospital comes into view. The detective steps first into the facility, heading to the lobby desk to ask for Karino's room. Aizawa follows behind him, quietly proceeding to the room where they shall meet the devil, and upon reaching their destination, Tsukauchi stops and speaks without turning to Aizawa. "We cannot allow her to fall to the hands of villains, Eraser Head. We must keep her away from them." He tells him in a low voice, almost like a whisper, but Aizawa can hear the firmness in it, commanding and final.

However, the raven-haired hero finds the detective's proclamation idiotic. "If she's going to be a hero, she'll have to fight villains." He reminds rather mockingly.

Tsukauchi remains quiet, letting seconds fly by as he muses over an unpleasant hypothesis he has previously came up with. Then, he breaks the silence with a solemn statement of, "You just might have to take the child's life in the near future, Eraser."

Aizawa doesn't react to that, the thought has crossed him since the day Nezu coerced him to become a teacher in his school.

He has mulled it over for days now, debating whether it best to imprison her in Tartarus or simply dispose of her. The rational side of him decides it best to end her as fast as they can, but his morality (he dislikes labeling it as 'emotional side') dictates it villainous to kill her in cold blood. He believes there is always room for improvement to all beings; prisons exist as rehabilitation centers for them, of course they can change. Yet, he cannot shake the notion of an absolute evil being existing, and he accepts that dirtying one's hand was also part of the job.

Tsukauchi waits, then looks him over his shoulder before calling him, "Eraser?"

"I heard you the first time." Aizawa replies in a dead tone. "I know."

He nods then, before turning the knob and opening the door.

"Oh! Sir Eraser Head and Officer Tsukauchi! Good day!" A bubbly voice greets, smiling at the sight of them. "Here to visit Anya, I see. I just removed her IV fluids. The doctor says she can be discharged by tomorrow." The nurse tells them, slightly gesturing to a child sitting on a hospital cot behind her.

"That is good news." Tsukauchi offers the nurse a small smile, then bows. "Thank you very much. Please give my thanks to the doctor too."

"You're welcome. I'll make sure he hears it." The nurse looks back at the child and calls, "Anya, sweetie! Mister Tsukauchi and the hero Eraser Head are here to see you!"

Hearing her name, she shifts her gaze towards the door, then smiles sparingly at the new faces she's seeing. "Thanks for visiting me today, misters."

After the nurse excused herself, the two men finally enters. Tsukauchi takes a seat near the child's bed, while Aizawa closes the door behind him and remains in place.

"Good morning, Anya. Will it be okay to speak with you today?" Tsukauchi asks, smiling softly.

"Yes."

"How are you doing? Feeling better?"

She holds the small smile on her face. "I was never hurt though."

"True, but…" Tsukauchi hesitates, thinking it criminal to bring up someone's previous misfortune, to their face even. "Listen, Anya, your relatives don't want to take you in, so you will be under the care of the police."

She jolts, her smile drops into a blend of shock and fear. "You're arresting me?"

"No." He replies immediately, almost sounding defensive. "You're a minor, so no. Besides, you're..not a criminal. At least, we think so."

The girl does not respond, and silence takes over. From a distance, Aizawa studies her, recalling the records he examined on the way to the hospital. The discrepancy between her pictures in their database and her actual appearance - her skin no longer brown but pale white as snow, her hair no longer dark but silver, and her eyes no longer gold but a pink hue - intrigues him.

She looks like a person with albinism, a rare genetic anomaly that messes up with skin pigment. She doesn't have any medical records pertaining to the disease, to be precise, this is the first time she's ever admitted to an infirmary.

Perhaps the change in her appearance may be related to her quirk, Aizawa ponders.

"...I didn't mean it." She says abruptly, then repeats in a louder voice, "I didn't mean it!"

Tsukauchi jolts in shock, for he hears an impatience from the child's words, and trepidation, then, "I know." He quickly answers, flat and calm. "We know."

She frowns, and he worries what it might convey, then her eyes veer past his shoulder, as if only taking notice of the presence behind him.

Aizawa has only been recently become a pro-hero himself, but his instincts are just as keen as the veterans. Their gazes meet for the first time, and at the briefest moment he picks up the faintest hint of hostility, prickling the skin at his back and churning his stomach. Like a reflex, Aizawa grabs his scarf as he prepares to activate his quirk, and later he notices himself glaring at a child so feeble and small and heartbreaking - the realization itself mortifies him.

So he loosens his grip over his scarf, then composes himself by releasing the breath he suddenly becomes aware of holding in, and, "…Sorry about that." He offers with a reluctance of a father about reprimanding their daughter.

She stares at him for a time, and, "It's okay," she answers slowly, salmon orbs dropping to a pair of pure white hands as she adds, "You _should_ be wary of me."

He hears the pain, the guilt, the _hatred_ , and it scares him that he does. "What do you mean?"

"My quirk changed." She looks at the detective, then back to him. "It changed, but I don't know when, or _how_ …" She explains, the confusion and terror echoes loudly from her last word. "Mama and papa think it was stress, so they suggested we go play outside. Turns out it was the worst idea ever." Her body shakes visibly, in both anger and frustration, Aizawa thinks. She looks like she's about to cry, but she doesn't, instead, she continues on, "Villains attacked, and the heroes responded fast, but they _failed_."

Regret grips Tsukauchi, and he feels partly responsible for the child's woe. "Anya, I understand you're hurting but-"

"Heroes!" She snaps, her anger vivid on her burning salmon eyes. "They failed to protect - to _save_ mama and papa! What are they even good for?!"

The bed underneath her suddenly breaks, as if giving in from a massive weight, the railings along it fold, and the vase beside the headboard splinters into small sharp fragments, then a violent gust follows.

"Villains… Heroes… **Tell me what they are good for!** " She cries, madness screaming from her high-pitched voice, and in spite of her alabaster skin, a murky darkness settles over her face - her _bloodlust_ erupts.

Aizawa's eyes flash red, his hair flares up and in a second, his scarf wraps around the child's body. On the other hand, Tsukauchi picks himself up, astounded by the awareness of how the wind has blown him off the chair. And he wonders if the change the child refers to is a quirk to control wind.

"Calm down, Anya." Aizawa speaks. He pulls on his scarf, giving the child a hard squeeze. "You're a good student. You must be aware it is prohibited to use your quirk in public."

Her anger immediately changes into confusion, and when the scarf squeezes her she lets out a groan of pain, morphing her face into a cycle of shock, bewilderment and agony.

"Anya, let me introduce you," Tsukauchi starts. "This man here is the Pro-Hero Eraser Head. His quirk gives him the ability to nullify anyone's quirk by merely looking at them."

The child looks surprised, almost delighted at the words. Her gaze finds him again, and she ignores his glowering red eyes. She stares at him with a hopeful gaze, like looking at a god - her savior. "Really?" She asks, curious and hopeful and rather enthusiastic.

Aizawa refuses to grace her a response, remaining wary of the child. The bloodlust he previously felt dissipates, like it never exists to begin with, and pure faith, however baseless it is, has now replaced the shadow of rage on her face.

A moment of silence hangs dry in the air, until Tsukauchi decides it is safe to release the girl. He looks over the raven-haired hero and nods, a knowing smile on his lips, then his gaze returns to Anya, smiling softly as he begins, "As I was saying earlier, the police shall take custody of you, but we made special arrangements and has given a certain hero school to take charge of you."

Anya hears him but focuses on the hero who has her wrapped. When the scarf loosens and his hair falls down to his shoulders, she begins to wonder about his role. As a hero, he must be standing as a bodyguard or a protective measure for the police force, at least she assumes so.

"...And he will be your guardian." Tsukauchi finishes as he gestures to the raven-haired man.

Though she fails to listen properly about the whole picture, she at least understands the last part. However, she feels it unnecessary, because she has found the answer to the problem.

"Huh? Just erase this quirk, mister." She says bluntly. "Remove this curse for good."

=

Aizawa soon discovers she cannot control her quirk, giving him headaches every time he sees her. The act of merely approaching her becomes tricky, and _fatal_ , because if she is caught unaware of an incoming touch, hug, or even anything at all that requires close contact, objects and people go flying off to the opposite direction. The worse part of it is, most of the time objects get destroyed and, people get hurt it's terrifying.

In spite it all, Anya seems unruffled by it. She settles with simply reminding the people to be careful around her, and she keeps to herself most of the time, tucking herself away from anyone's sight among the trees surrounding the school grounds.

Aizawa does not immediately take action, and he observes her for a week in cold indifference. He doesn't know what it is he expects will come from his actions, or what it is he expects from her, other than disaster, and if she has the will to control her power she doesn't show it, and nothing has changed in that regard. She offers him absolute obedience, adhering to the rules of the school and heeding every instruction he gives her, yet when she follows him in dead silence he feels the slightest bit unsettled for reasons unknown to him.

"Mister." She calls unexpectedly, and Aizawa flinches ungracefully, a curse almost escaping his mouth.

"What?" He asks, his irritation leaking out of his tone.

"May I call you something else other than mister?"

Aizawa rolls his eyes as he finds the whole issue trivial. "You can start with calling me teacher Aizawa."

"I can't call you uncle?"

He cringes, then spares her a glance. "Do I look like an uncle to you?"

She nods without hesitation.

He groans. "I'm only 22. I'm too young to be called an uncle."

"22 is older than 7," she reasons, "so calling you uncle is the proper way."

"I prefer teacher."

"Then, teacher Shota?"

He stops, then fully turns to her, "Shota?" He questions with one unimpressed eyebrow raised.

"Shota." She repeats dryly. "Uncle Sho- oh, I mean, teacher Shota."

Aizawa falls quiet, and he regards her for a long time, contemplating the concept of first name basis in their relationship. She is the devil and he is the devil's warden, their circumstance holds no logical reason for strengthening their bond by closing the gap with familiarity. However, she is also a child and he is an adult - a student and a teacher, and in this regard, it is rational to close the gap and strengthen their bond.

"Fine." He says finally, slowly reaching for her, hovering his hand tentatively over her head. He internally debates upon using his erasure quirk before patting her head, but his rumination is easily disrupted by the fluff of her silver hair, silky and soft.

"Teacher Shota, then." She mutters as she inches closer to the man.

"Yes, Anya." He replies gently, his expression softening as he pats her head just as softly.

* * *

 **A/N: Yes, that's right, this is a revision/rewriting of this fic - all current chapters are rewritten/revised. The whole premise is still the same but there are a few major changes with how the story goes. Also, I changed the writing to present tense, because recently, present tense sounds good to me. Updates will still be irregular. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it!**


	2. Good Second

**Be Good**

 **Good Second**

In Yuuei High Academy, there exists an individual who holds the epithet 'devil'. This epithet, however, is not known to many, and only selected individuals - heroes and authorities - are aware of this being existing. To the masses, the devil appears just like any other civilian, even to the students of the school sheltering this individual. Perhaps, the peculiar thing about the devil is that, the hero Eraser Head acts as her legal guardian.

Her presence has caused great intrigue among the students of Yuuei High, and palpable amusement among its hero-educators. Rumors of her being the hero Eraser Head Shota Aizawa's illegitimate child spread like wildfire, and he doesn't bother to clear that up, for he finds it straight up ridiculous and irrational.

The girl tails the man everywhere he goes unless he allows her to go off on her own. He doesn't allow her to walk out of the school premises though, but it doesn't stop her from wandering around the school grounds. They treat her like a normal student of her age, and under Aizawa, Nezu and a few more other hero-educators in Yuuei, she is educated and trained. There are other times when they ask her to do menial tasks during school days, like delivering piles of files from one teacher to another, or just escorting a student to an instructor. She practically lives a normal, mundane life, except for some unfortunate occurrences where a stray ball shoots up to the sky, or the ground cracks under an invisible force, or a desk propels to a wall, or someone's arm _breaks_.

It's the little things that unnerves everyone in Yuuei High Academy.

"Is this really fine for the kid?"

"Frankly, I'm not sure. Even so, I believe this is a necessary step to contain the power of her quirk."

Nezu doesn't take long before he proposes to subject Anya in a battle trial against villain bots - combat testing robots which the school uses to screen prospect hero-students. He explains to Aizawa at length, slowly yet firmly, that they need to explore how Anya's quirk works - its trigger, its full power and its potential weakness. If they mean to control, _suppress_ Anya's unruly quirk, they are at least going to need to learn its mechanism, and then move forward to tame it, or better yet, seal it.

A fine logic, Aizawa admits, but he's against it. "She's only seven. A battlefield may only worsen her condition."

"I understand but doing nothing will _not_ change anything."

"We're not doing _nothing_. The kid is capable of holding a conversation, and she interacts-"

"She broke Lunch Rush's arm, Eraser."

Aizawa pauses at that, and his jaw clenches. He recalls the news of Lunch Rush going to Recovery Girl due to a broken arm, and then when he meets Anya, she immediately apologizes to him with an eerie, dull voice, her face an expressionless mask. The memory alone brings shivers down his spine.

"She doesn't show it, but I'm sure she is hurt by it. So I want to help her, I want her to feel that we are _not_ afraid of her, and instead, we want to help her." Nezu finishes, his button-like eyes a solid black against the bright sunshine from the window.

Aizawa relents unwillingly, and speaks to Anya after. The girl easily agrees, and he spies a hint of joy in the way she nods eagerly. Perhaps the mink's judgment is correct, Aizawa concludes, that Anya wants help all along, maybe too shy, or afraid to ask, though it only left him wondering why she will ever hesitate about it.

Soon, the girl finds herself standing in the middle of a city, filled with towering buildings, ebony roads and ivory street signs surrounding her, but the lack of life drops her heart. No sooner than she gets surrounded by machines of varying shapes and sizes that she finds the site so gloomy and bleak. Her eyes gaze beyond their weaponry which they menacingly points at her, and the long empty road ahead conveys a loneliness that which solitude has brought her.

Anya lowers her head, and there is a certain abandon in the gesture which causes great worry among those watching.

"Anya dear! That's dangerous! You don't want to use your quirk?" A booming voice bellows from a megaphone propped up across the street. It belongs to Hizashi Yamada, the hero known as Present Mic. He is a tall man with long, spiky blond hair wearing a pair of sunglasses and a pair of headphones. "If you want to stop, just scream right on top of your lungs and we'll deactivate the bots then head there immediately!"

Anya doesn't reply, or show any discernible reaction.

"Anya dear!" The blond shouts again, worried, for he thinks the girl might have fallen asleep or something, and he is afraid they might end up injuring her more than they intend to.

But Anya remains still and quiet.

A tense lull has them on the edge of their seats, anxiously awaiting the moment when the villain bots finally open fire, and when they fire they are relentless, and Yamada jumps to the sound, recoiling at the sight, at the vision of a helpless child punched with multiple holes on her body, lifeless and bloody.

"This can't be heroic at all!" He screams, frantic, and he promptly stands up from his seat and turns away from the screen, but the curious gazes of his company compels him to look again, ultimately allowing himself to bear witness to an impossible sight.

"What is… _that_?" A female voice, belonging to Nemuri Kayama, the hero known as Midnight. She is a curvaceous, voluptuous woman wearing a black leotard over a white bodysuit. "Deflection? Reflection? What is the right term?" She asks no one in particular, and the crowd with her listens, their minds occupied by the same questions.

On the screen, Anya remains motionless, staring blankly on the ground. The bots keep at it, gunshots one after another, and not long her nose fills with the awful smell of gunpowder, and she hates it, such a pungent smell. So she begins to move, raising her head slowly but surely, and then she throws them a glare one by one, while each meets their destruction from their own bullets.

"What?! What happened?!" Yamada yells, surprised and confused. "So it's not just deflection?"

"It's reflection then." Kayama seconds, but the frown creasing her forehead suggests otherwise. "But what was that earlier? Didn't it seem like the bullets were bouncing off her indiscriminately?"

"Perhaps it means her quirk is both passive _and_ active." Someone among them comments. It is the hero Ectoplasm, a slender man wearing a tan trench coat with a trademark exposed teeth. "Which also translates to a defensive and offensive type of quirk. She's going to be a tough opponent for villains."

"Hah! For sure!" Another remarks. He is the hero Snipe, a man wearing a typical western cowboy who also happens to wield guns. "It's as if she's telling me guns don't work on her, and that hurts you know!"

"If anything, it doesn't look like its effect stretches too far." Sekijiro Kan known as the Blood Hero: Vlad King, a bulky man with spiky gray hair, gently offers to his colleague. "Parts of her dress are torn. Look."

They all take the time to look and observes, and shortly after, Yamada throws the other hero a quizzical look. "What, you wanna measure the distance her quirk covers?"

Vlad King only shrugs. "You never know, the data could be useful."

Yamada hums lightly before speaking over the microphone once more. "Anya dear, that's enough. Let's pick you up. Meet you on the entrance."

"Wait!" She shrills, a startling high-pitched sound, proof of her very young age - a child of only seven years.

The blond settles back down to his chair, then queries, "What is it, Anya dear? Is there something more to your quirk?"

She nods, and he cannot believe his breath hitched at _that_.

"Please watch closely." She requests, the strange formality in her voice has them guessing it must be the one thing greatly troubling her.

When Anya approaches a broken bot, they subconsciously brace themselves, and when she lifts her thigh, they hold their breaths, and when she kicks the object, they gasp. It then ends with it vanishing from sight, or at least, from their screens.

"You reduced it to nothingness?!" Yamada yells again, not only surprised and confused, but now also terrified. "How?!"

"No, I…I didn't, it's not _reducing_ , it's, I-" She stammers, troubled by the conclusion they have drawn from her performance. "I told you to look closely." She whines, although mildly, then she walks up to another broken bot. "Watch closely, _please_!" She shouts this time, and instead of her foot, she extends a hand over it, and then with a touch the bot flies to the building next to it, forcing its way through it, and then disappearing from sight again.

However, crashing noises continue to resound until it fades into a stop, and when they switch the cameras they are presented to a scene of destruction - a gaping hole has been left through the trail of the object, and at the end of it, a charcoal-black stain marks the sturdy wall of their training area.

"Again, what is… _that_?" A male's voice now, belonging to Higari Majima known as the Excavation Hero: Power Loader, a small skinny man wearing a large yellow helmet over his face. He stares wide-eyed at the screen, then gulps. "You think something like deflection or reflection can do… _that_?" Despite his mask on, everyone around him can see the look on his face, for they too, have felt the same thing.

 _Fear_.

"That has to be her limit." Aizawa declares. "Has to be. There can only be a few villains who stand a chance against _that_ but the same goes for us heroes." He pauses, and they all exchange meaningful glances at one another, as if assessing the situation, the risks and benefits, the present and future. "If anything, we all hang in the balance."

=/=

Days pass and turn to weeks, and Aizawa decides it best to keep a vigilant eye on Anya. She sticks around him longer than the previous, close by at all times. The only time she isn't together with the hero Eraser Head is when she's taken to the principal's humble domain, apparently serving as the devil's temporary home.

Aizawa knows his place isn't the most suitable, so he goes to ask Nezu if his home could accommodate a child. Nezu isn't very hard to convince and kindly takes in the child, but after a couple of weeks, the principal complains about her apparent mood swings.

"Her nose is too sensitive," he tells Aizawa then pauses to drink his hot coffee. After a moment, he adds, "She complains about the smell of smoke, but I make it a point not to smoke near her room, or anywhere inside the house."

"She probably smells it on you." Aizawa flatly replies. "Maybe on your suit, or your breath."

"What should I do? I never imagined caring for a child is this hard."

The sound of the principal whining oddly amuses him, and, "If you're giving up, consider throwing her onto Midnight. I bet she'd love that."

"You think?" Nezu asks in genuine curiosity. He takes a little sip of his coffee, then settles his gaze on the swirling brown liquid, smelling the fine aroma from its steam. "Parents certainly are amazing."

Then it strikes him, about the devil's house, their properties, and the plants she seems to adore. "Nezu, what happened to the Karinos' property?"

"Her relatives do not seem to want to take it so all rights are on the Karinos' daughter. I have asked some workers on their neighbourhood to maintain it. Anya hasn't talked about it yet though, but just in case."

"And the flower shop?"

"It's closed down, but I took all the plants. I'm planning to make a small garden on my house's front yard since Anya seems to really like plants. Of course, I'll pay Anya for all of them, I just didn't want to let them wither you know, such a waste of life. But like I said, she hasn't talked about it yet."

"Why not bring it up yourself?"

Nezu pauses and takes another sip of his coffee. He swirls the liquid for a moment then lifts his gaze to meet Aizawa's droopy pair. "She's being distant to me. Although she does tell me off about my smoking habits, she never truly asks for anything. She doesn't say anything unless I start the conversation. I want her to open up to me of her own free will. Otherwise, I won't feel comfortable talking to her about it. They are essentially mementos of her parents. It's bound to be a touchy subject."

Aizawa doesn't say anymore, and his mind wanders off to a hopeful future where Anya doesn't exude an aura so malicious he might mistake her for a villain.

Weeks pass, mundane and quick, turning to months, then years.

Through the course of time, Yuuei's staff learns about the devil's power, albeit slowly. For two years, they have managed to unravel the true nature of the devil's quirk, and adding three more years to that they have successfully helped Anya to curb and modify its trigger and power. As for its weakness though, the only thing close to it is the distance at which her quirk takes effect. Other than that, she is virtually invincible.

It takes Anya another year to finally control her quirk, but she doesn't master it. She doesn't grow powerful, rather, she stays that same devil who decimated a whole park. There appears to be no notable change on her quirk as time goes on, no increase or decrease, a stagnation that Aizawa cannot discern whether it's a benefit or a risk. There are times when a grim thought crosses him, about her quirk being in its infancy, but he doesn't get too pessimistic beyond that, at least he makes an effort not to.

And in the physical sense, Anya grows rather unsteadily. Aizawa shortly discovers that the change in her complexion is indeed due to her quirk. In addition, doctors realize that her quirk is also capable of blocking out various environmental stimulation, so in order to promote Anya's normal physiologic growth, she needs to take a couple of supplements to compensate for the loss of it.

 _No wonder the girl never gets sick_ , Aizawa muses.

"Uncle Might is coming today, right?" Anya voices, unintentionally breaking Aizawa's musing.

He looks at her briefly before returning his gaze forward. "Yes." He answers simply, walking steadily to their destination, the training area called Ground Beta.

For the past six years until the present, Anya continues to work on improving her endurance through battling against the greatest hero, All Might. The man dedicates his life to hero work yet he graces Anya the privilege of his personal guidance. Their great bout happens once every three months because All might is a busy man.

"Young Anya, my girl! Let's make this another fruitful experience!" The muscular blond man announces just as proudly as he stands.

He is Toshinori Yagi known best as the greatest hero, All Might. Heroes admire him, villains fear him, and civilians revere him - the undefeated champion of mankind, All Might is the embodiment of absolute power and good.

"Please be good to me, uncle Might…" She mutters weakly, though she doesn't ask for mercy, she still wishes for a fighting chance to last longer than their previous.

"All right young Anya! Let us begin!" All Might shouts as he lunges forward, fists at the ready to hit their target, unmerciful and swift, and Anya falls back, she knows there is no surviving a head-on attack.

Against All Might, Anya doesn't last a minute, hardly even a second. She either gets instantly knocked out with a single punch or gets thrown off with one kick. And she isn't the only one who finds it difficult, because when she faints her quirk seems to heighten, its range and power increases significantly, repelling the hero-teachers who only wants to offer assistance.

Aizawa, specifically, has it rougher than most, because it all comes down to the hero Eraser Head, the man whose erasure quirk never fails to cancel her destructive quirk.

With a light tap on the ground, Anya causes a tiny explosion made of earth and rocks, then she kicks a stone, and it flies like a bullet fired towards her opponent's face, but the man seamlessly blocks the attack with an arm.

"Nice try, young Anya, but you need to do better than that to stop me!" All Might announces as he delivers a right jab, but to his surprise, he misses.

A moment of pause and he hears a groan of pain, and when he follows its source he finds a bruised Anya against a broken wall of a building. He stares at her, studying the situation, determining that what has transpired was Anya experimenting on how to utilize her quirk to move her body. The very idea breaks his face into a wide, delighted grin, almost as if he's impressed of something - or perhaps, a mockery to Anya's blunder (to her perspective) - but either way he looks happy.

"Clever, but it's a shame," he utters with his toothy grin still on display, and, "For it is _I_ who you're up against."

All Might doesn't take so much as a split second to close their distance, and he appears instantaneously right in front of her. He jabs his large fist forward then stops short before its knuckles touch alabaster skin. Ferocious wind blows against her face, and she feels the violent breeze caress her cheeks, leaving a single cut that stings sharp and hot.

"Well, that's done!" All Might withdraws and chuckles lightly. "You were great today, young Anya! You should improve on it, that was quite a well idea!"

Anya freezes, she always finds All Might's comical grin unsettling, and she thinks that maybe the intimidation and the oppressive pressure he exudes is one he shows his enemies. He doesn't seem too merciful to her then.

"...Thank you for today, uncle Might." She says to him, picking herself up from the rubble and then dusting her clothes. Anya doesn't care about losing, or winning. She also doesn't mind the pain, she feels she deserves the punishment and suffering, but lately, she has seen the concept of pain in a new light.

Lamenting the death of her parents is something she has fought long and hard for years, and with the help of the hero Eraser Head and the principal Nezu, she has finally overcame it. She considers All Might also contributes to that, but mostly she is grateful for Shota Aizawa, her legal guardian. Because of him, she appreciates pain and sees it as something precious, a gift brimming with life, telling her she is _alive_.

Her parents' last wish is for her to live, and she lives on, for the sake of herself and her late loved ones, and now, for those she loves anew.

Then after two years, Anya turns fifteen, the same age as the new freshmen entering Yuuei High Academy. However, Nezu has formerly decided that her education will be given differently, though of course, he wishes her to be able to socialize and interact with kids of her age.

One problem is they don't know how to introduce her to the new students.

Her epithet as the devil is largely unknown to students, except for a few who Aizawa has approved to challenge her in a semi-official match as part of their training. Students know her as Aizawa's assistant, since she helps him weed out the ' _unworthy_ ' by taking part in the series of events he prepares for newcomers, but if she's getting appropriate education like a proper freshman should, they need a more plausible explanation for her to be sticking around the raven-haired hero.

"What's the difference? I'm sure you'll end up expelling them all anyway." Anya expresses, conveying little care about the subject.

"There's no certainty that will happen. There are a lot of promising kids these days, and powerful quirks have been emerging recently." Aizawa reasons, a tiny bit cross. He just wants to be done with it.

"I don't see any problem with continuing on as your assistant, Shota."

He blinks at the way she addresses him, but he doesn't show any indication of disliking it. He doesn't remember when she has dropped the 'teacher' part, and somehow he gets used to hearing his first name spoken so lightly and casually by a velvety, mellow voice - none can ever imagine she possesses a strong bloodlust like most dangerous criminals in their world. Peaceful times like it make him see Anya differently, like how she's just a normal teenager, a bit giddier than most students but very diligent, a little jumpy at times but polite. He finds she isn't the only one with troubles about subduing the power of their quirk, but there are other students on that same boat. However, the difference is the danger their quirks poses to other people, and Anya happens to have a record of breaking an arm instead of causing simple inconveniences the other kids might have done another.

He doesn't mind, really, and it surprises him that he doesn't. He knows getting attached to the devil can mean either a problem or a solution, and when the girl looks at him like he's someone precious to her he feels fluffy and warm inside, yet at the same time he feels an ominous cloud looming beside him every time.

"I don't mind it, so for sure they don't mind either." Anya speaks further, and her voice startles him, not that he shows. "We're all kids, what do we care if one of us is a teacher's assistant?" She finishes, and she stands in front of a mirror where she tangles and untangles a red tie around the collar of her white blouse.

Aizawa quietly watches her for a moment, and, "It's certainly bad for appearances. I've heard teachers can get themselves in lots of trouble because of it."

"Like what?"

"Sexual harassment."

Her gaze snaps back to his, the shift of her head sharp as a whip, and her astonishment is perfectly conveyed by her salmon eyes, wide open and unblinking.

Unfazed, Aizawa continues on. "Child abuse, illegal affairs, favoritism… They have a list, want to look it over?"

She blinks, her head spins, and, "N-no! That's not important anymore! We have to do something!" She panics, ignoring the tie messily tangled around her collar. "I don't want anyone accusing you of any of those you just said! That's insulting!"

To that, Aizawa smirks, and he lightly pats her head. "Thank you, Anya."

Her eyes seem to flutter shut as she indulges herself to the warm and gentle feeling of her guardian's pats. She doesn't care if it tousles her hair, or if the act makes her look childish, because it makes her remember fond memories, of the father and mother she lost. Although she doesn't see him as their replacement, she accepts him as someone she can truly trust and rely on, so before him her shield is down, and her quirk's power is null.

=/=

Class 1-A's first day of school at Yuuei High Academy begins with a dreary undertone. Shota Aizawa greets them and introduces himself dryly, promptly throwing them into a hot frying pan next as he tells them to change into their gym clothes and head out to the grounds. Once outside, he gives them the briefest overview of his so-called 'test of quirks', eliciting all kinds of amusing responses.

"But what about an entrance ceremony, o-or a guidance session?!" A female student raises. She sounds very confused and afraid.

Aizawa doesn't care, however, and he answers rather coldly, "No time to waste on that stuff if you want to become heroes. Yuuei is known for its freestyle educational system - that applies to us teachers as well." He produces a softball, then glances at Anya's direction as he drawls, "Softball throwing, 50-meter dash, endurance running, grip strength… There's more that you did in middle school, yes? The standard no-quirks-allowed gym tests." He points to a circle, and she quickly steps to its center. She looks at him with anticipation, and when Aizawa pitches her the ball, she receives it. "It's impossible to get triple digits on your throwing records in middle school, at least not without your quirks. In this exercise though, I want you to use your quirks and give it your all."

Aizawa nods and Anya tosses the ball up. Though it looks like she has thrown it lightly, the ball shoots up like a rocket, flying off to the heavens and beyond.

"Know your limits." Aizawa flips a rectangular meter in his hand. "That's the first rational step to figuring out what kind of hero you'll be."

It reads 808.1m.

"Whoa, seriously?! Wow this is awesome! Yes! Hero course is great!"

The students cheer in chorus, excited and gleeful, always the same reaction that makes the devil irritated she clicks her tongue in annoyance. For a time, she views all students aiming for the heroics department as eyesores, and it hasn't changed. There are a few exemptions to this just recently, irregardless, in all those years she has spent in Yuuei High, her one question stands unanswered.

"-girl! Hey!" A boy of spiky red hair among the new freshmen waves at her, an attempt to catch her attention, and she grants him the attention he seeks, her salmon eyes rest over his direction. "That was awesome! Nice quirk!" He remarks with his thumbs up, and he grins at her happily, a jovial and carefree attitude Anya long despises.

"Awesome, you say? You lot came here to be a hero or what?" Anya scoffs, and along with her sparking irritation follows a heavy tone, "You think it'll be fun and games?"

Aizawa frowns, he feels her animosity growing by the second so he decides to approach her, and he places his hand ever so gently on fluffy silver tuft, casually pats her head as he announces smoothly, "This girl is Anya Karino. She has been helping Yuuei High Academy to test our new students for the past five years, and although she will be a freshman this year too, she will be joining you for today's event. Be grateful."

The confusion is palpable among the students, and a bit of unrest can be felt as well. But when Aizawa delivers a declaration with a stare so sinister and a tone foreboding, fear and anxiety starts to grip most of them.

"Anya Karino is today's event's reference. Score lower than hers across all eight events and you will be judged unworthy and will be immediately expelled."

Anya laughs, and, "This should be _fun_! You lot are going to be expelled today, that's plus ultra!"

=/=

The record Anya set is by no means unbreakable nor impossible, but she sets the standard so high it's borderline insane. Previously, students do manage to outclass her on at least one or two out of all eight events Aizawa presents them, but the problem lies at the condition itself, the overall grading. Best Anya on one or two events, it doesn't mean much, because she always tops the remaining seven or six events it's practically unfair.

She doesn't expect anything but she still finds herself disappointed. The event carries on like usual, and out of boredom she decides to watch them. There are twenty of them, and one of her, and she wonders if they can pose a challenge against her in a fair fight, but she stays apathetic about it. Getting her hopes up spells for a terrible downfall, the kind that hurts like hell, she presumes. So she focuses back on the games, discreetly gauging their control of their quirks, their power and intelligence, and somehow envy catches her off-guard, because until now she has not been able to fully master her quirk - she is unable to deactivate it.

She gets frustrated, and then she begins to hate her place, but when she finds herself distracted comes an unexpected occurrence, like throwing gasoline into the fire.

"46 meters." Aizawa utters, his eyes red and his hair flares up. "I erased your quirk. It's completely irrational when you consider someone like you got in with that ridiculous entrance exam."

Anya tracks his line of gaze and sees a young boy with messy dark green hair and symmetrical freckles on both cheeks, looking markedly distressed and maybe a little puzzled as well.

She doesn't catch on until she hears the chatters, and listens. The surprise and awe among the students suddenly shocks her, then realization hits her like a tidal wave: Aizawa is concerned of someone _not_ her.

"I saw how you can't control your quirk," his obsidian eyes dart towards the devil, holding her gaze for a brief second then swinging back to a pair of green ones. "You'd just be incapacitated again. Were you hoping someone would step in to help you afterwards?"

His last words strike a chord to Anya's heart, disgust and hatred begins to churn her stomach, and she feels helpless, weak, vulnerable.

"N-no, it's not…!" The boy utters, but hesitation holds his tongue and he zips his mouth shut.

"Whatever you were planning, it would have inconvenienced those around you. You're totally useless after saving just a single person." Aizawa continues, glaring sharply at the teen, "Izuku Midoriya, you cannot become a hero with that power of yours." He lets his words linger for a moment longer before closing his eyes. He sighs, then, "I returned your quirk. Give it another try. Let's get this over with."

The boy mutters to himself, unwilling to give up, and shortly he exhibits a feat that surprises not only his fellow classmates, but Aizawa along with Anya as well. He proudly stares at the raven-haired hero who is clearly impressed by the teen's show of unyielding resolve. If anything, Aizawa finds it satisfying to see the small flame in prospect heroes like the green-haired boy burning bigger and brighter with a push from him.

Then he thinks to himself, becoming a teacher isn't such a terrible idea after all.

* * *

 **A/N: Revision/rewriting done! (12-14-2019)**


	3. Good Third

**Be Good**

 **Good Third**

"WHAT THE HELL?! EXPLAIN YOURSELF, DEKU!" Someone growls with a loud, grating voice.

Just as Aizawa thinks they can move on with the events, another commotion breaks out.

A boy with explosively spiky blond hair jumps into the scene, and he looks very upset, no, quite angry in fact, that he produces explosions from both hands, propelling himself fast towards the boy with mossy green hair.

With no more than a second, Aizawa captures the angry teen and robs him of his quirk altogether. His eyes flash red once more, glaring at the kid, and, "Geez, stop using your quirk already… I'm getting dry eye over here." He says, then blinks and sighs. "What a waste of time. Prepare for the next event."

During the events, Aizawa observes Anya more intently than the rest, because he felt a spike of hostility coming from her the moment he prevented the boy Izuku Midoriya from using his quirk. It looks to him she performs just as usual, but the way the ground cracks ever so slightly to her footfalls doesn't go unnoticed.

 _She's angry_.

Anya doesn't get upset easily, but when she does the situation goes downhill very quickly every time. She has fair tolerance to it, and she doesn't lash out as fast as her anger builds up, but Aizawa makes it a point she does _not_ reach her boiling point.

The whole 'test of skills' comes to a close, and Aizawa goes over it with a brief explanation and a quick show of their scores. Anya yields the highest score unsurprisingly, but perhaps it _is_ so much of a surprise to a handful of students by the way they have reacted upon seeing the score board. Aizawa has to wonder how much confidence these kids carry.

She doesn't show any sort of emotion regarding the results. It has been quite a replay of the past, where she crushed aspiring heroes with the most minimal show of her quirk. Yet, she knows they all passed Aizawa's ' _true_ ' test - knows it with a staggering certainty she doesn't know what surprises her most; the feeling itself or the fact that she fails to find doubt however thorough her search. And it rattles her, the imaginings it makes her conjure rubs her the wrong way she feels she might be unable to contain the indignation, the envy, the _rage_.

Aizawa notices, and he sees her struggling against it. He decides to disregard it for the meantime and turns his attention back to the new batch of freshmen for that school year.

"Your total scores simply reflect your performance in each of the events. Explaining the process is a waste of time, so all you get are the final rankings." Aizawa announces simply, pausing a moment to observe how they'll react to it, and seeing over a little more than a half of them shaking in anxiety and sighing in depression, he says next, " I was lying about expelling anyone."

They all flinch in shock, doubtful.

"It was a rational deception meant to bring out the best in all of you." He sneers, but he doesn't get any perceptible reaction from it until a moment later, when they all began screaming, in shock or perhaps complaining, he isn't certain, except for the relieved sighs they expel after.

Something from that light-hearted scene seems to aggravate Anya, and the earth suddenly breaks beneath her feet. The sound draws Aizawa's attention to her, a prickling sensation creeping up his spine once more.

 _She's become angrier._

"Anya," he calls, and the girl flinches visibly, the glare she wore now replaced with something akin to nervousness, and she turns to him slow and hesitant, like a child readying herself for a scolding she seems certain to receive. "Stay calm. What are you so worked up about?"

Her lips part, but her voice doesn't come out. She looks away and grits her teeth before she forces her tongue to form a reply, "…Nothing."

"Anya-"

"Excuse me, sir!" A voice interjects, oblivious of the danger he might get mixed into. "I recall you saying this girl is a freshman. Is she a student from another school?" The boy asks curiously. He is one of the new freshmen, Tenya Iida, a muscular boy wearing a pair of rectangular glasses.

Aizawa snatches a glance at Anya and finds her glancing up at him as well. The tension between them lifts, with the girl getting flustered over the boy's simple question. And somehow he feels in debt to Nemuri Kayama for lending Anya her old Yuuei uniform - the design is a little different than the current, and he thinks of giving a lie mixed with half-truth. Still, he fails to make a solid alibi in regards to the devil's association with him and Yuuei High Academy.

"…Well, she's only here for official business like today." He answers flatly, and he feels the girl's intense stare at him. She's anxious. He is too.

"Is that so?" The boy shifts his attention from the raven-haired teacher to the pale girl and asks, "From what school are you?"

She instinctively steps back, clueless as to what answer to give, and then she glances back to Aizawa again only to find him looking just as troubled as her. She gulps, and, "D-does it matter?" She stutters, and she inwardly groans. She's already made a blunder.

"Huh? So is it a secret?" He looks surprised, not a hint of doubt in his rather square eyes. "That power… I understand, perhaps your training is classified information. If you're only here for business, then are you a hero sidekick?"

She blinks, and she doesn't know how to react to a sincerity so painful and naive, nevertheless, it has made their circumstances more convenient, so she decides to ride the flow and fully commit to the lie. "Y-yes, sort of. I assist the teachers, uh, the heroes with various things, from teacher work to, um, hero work…"

The boy seems awed by her claims, his jaws slack and he gazes at her like how kids stare at a hero. And the gesture makes her cringe, disgust scrunches her face to an ugly frown, but before the boy takes notice of the expression on her face another voice joins in, one that is loud and grating.

"HEY NOBODY!" The voice barks, grabbing everyone's attention without exemptions. "You think you're special, bitch?"

Aizawa doesn't react. He looks over to the brat with explosively spiky blond hair and recalls the results of the entrance exam. The boy is Katsuki Bakugo, the said exam's top scorer. No doubt he's talented, and of course, the brat's cocky too so he decides to wait and see if this racket of his will go down just like any other he has seen thus far with the devil at its center.

Anya looks at him and frowns. She doesn't understand the reason behind his scowl, and she doesn't like the way he glares at her. She glances at Aizawa and remembers his 'rule', so she ignores the teen but instead he's provoked. His bloated ego demands him to take action, multiple explosions popping up off his hands manifest his rage. Then, in a heartbeat, he rushes to her with an aim of blasting her away, a show of power, of dominance, of who is _worthy_.

Their clash ends fast with Katsuki Bakugo getting thrown back a good mile from Anya Karino, the latter looking unfazed, _unscathed_. He clutches his wrist, and with little movement pain shoots and slithers on every fiber of his muscle. His fierce red eyes bore into Anya's general direction, glowering at the fact he's left her untouched all the while he suffers a blow. His wrist is twisted - broken like a twig, and what infuriates him most is he hasn't seen her lift a finger to do it.

"Katsuki Bakugo, your hand looks broken. Go to the nurse's office together with Izuku Midoriya." Aizawa drawls and produces a couple of letters addressed to the nurse's office with his signature. "Anya has some sensitive issues right now so you'll be seeing her more often than not in this school. Play nice and don't argue with each other. I don't want something like this happening again."

Absolute stillness is the only response he gets, and their expressions can only be construed as confusion. He sighs and decides to leave it all at that until that same loud, grating voice yells once more.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST DO, BITCH?! SOMEONE LIKE YOU A HERO SIDEKICK?! SOMEONE LIKE YOU?!"

"'Someone like you'?" Anya repeats, perplexed. "You make it sound like I'm a bad guy here." She speaks bluntly. Her eyes narrow at him and she questions him next with a voice so mellow and restrained yet also so haunting and mysterious and terrifying. " _What, exactly, do you find wrong with someone like me_?"

Bakugo shudders involuntarily, and he doesn't notice it immediately until he hears himself swallow thickly. Gifted with sharp instincts, the explosive teen feels threatened, not the sort children feel when a new kid shows up and hogs all the attention, but the sort a hunter feels when they unexpectedly become the hunted. For reasons unknown to him yet, he feels he's in peril, as if death suddenly stands behind him, eagerly awaiting him to make one wrong move that will extinguish his life right there and then.

Aizawa feels it too, the girl isn't exactly the most adept in the arts of concealment and control. Her bloodlust lashes out on anyone within her vicinity, and most people don't know what hit them, or what they feel or experience until Anya does act on it.

"Judging people so hastily is bad enough, but you, I can tell you're even worse. I should return your exact words - someone like you a hero? _Someone like you_?" Anya reiterates, and her expression mutates to something crueler the more she speaks, then she shifts her gaze to each student one by one, and tells them rather menacingly, " **If you're overwhelmed by my mere existence, pack up and leave! Rethink your pathetic dreams, hero wannabes!** "

 _ **SLAP**_

Her field of vision instantly changes, the dirt and the leaves in the ground replaced the terrified faces of the new freshmen, from her periphery she spies Aizawa's silhouette. A moment later she realizes her cheek stinging, and she takes a palm to caress her face in an attempt to lessen the hurt.

"…Anya, you looked like a devil just now."

She winces at the voice despite how low and mild it spoke. She keeps her eyes focused on anything but the man, already aware of how he might look to the new students - a strange sight, for sure, because he has to activate his quirk merely to slap her, to snap her out of her own misery, jealousy, _hatred_.

A cruel reminder, she thinks, yet well-deserved, she trusts.

Aizawa dislikes it, always has, and he doesn't get used to it, never will, he believes. However, he knows no other rational way to keep her grounded and sane. Her morals border between good and evil, and she makes it even more difficult when she vies for neutrality, blindly believing she's unmoved by the concept of heroes when she openly hates them, and she thinks she's uninterested by the idea of villains when she's truly curious about them.

She seems unaware, or perhaps only pretends to be, and Aizawa doesn't know when she will face the contradictions she has imprisoned herself in. And he decides to have faith in her and simply observes, and maybe, guide her a little through it. After all, he is not only her judge and executioner but also her guardian first.

Aizawa turns to the kids and dismisses them, then leaves unceremoniously. Even without exchanging a word or gesture with the raven-haired hero, the pale girl simply nods her head to the students as some form of polite farewell then proceeds to exit as well, following the hero-teacher. The kids find it a strange way to begin their first day, nonetheless, they easily dismiss the issue as some form of uniqueness exclusive only to the most prestigious hero school in their nation.

=/=

In the heroics course, morning classes are 'normal' classes in which students study the basic subjects such as English and Mathematics, similar to typical academic schools where written exams has weight in their grades apart from their practicums. The only difference, perhaps, are the teachers, because they aren't simply teachers but also true pro-heroes. Despite this fact, as expected, most students who aspire to become real heroes in the future find theses morning classes boring.

Understandable. Teenagers with raging hormones might want to show off their quirks rather than keep their noses buried on their books.

However, a certain pale girl's presence keeps their boredom at bay.

There is so much left unsaid on their first day, so finding Anya Karino suddenly wearing the same uniform as they are _and_ entering their classroom is, to say the least, extremely surprising to all of them. From what they understand, she's a certain hero's sidekick, and although it isn't revealed to them yet who, they already assume it's the hero Eraser Head himself. It's the only explanation they can gather from the series of events unfolding before them.

They're curious, of course they are after witnessing what went down on the first day of classes: their top scorer got beat by this very same pale girl. She's shrouded in mystery, both her background and her quirk, and they want to learn the secrets to becoming a hero's sidekick in such a young age.

"Good morning! My name is Tenya Iida!" The boy with rectangular glasses announces as he brazenly approaches Anya once she has entered the room. He offers a hand for a shake, but the girl only looks at him. He gets impatient and moves closer, and with one stride forward she backs two steps away from him.

"Don't approach me so casually or you'll get hurt!" She shouts, and although the context comes off as an intimidation or a warning, her tone suggests genuine concern, and he wonders to whom it's directed, to the recipient or to the source herself.

"It's just a handshake to convey my feelings upon meeting you here." He replies plainly, his hand still held out to her. "And by this I mean it is nice to meet you again, Karino." He tells her, yet she refuses to accept his hand still. Seeing her frowning over the hand he's extending to her makes him pause, and, "Are you…uncomfortable with males?" He inquires, quite intrigued by the very idea of it.

Anya scowls at him defiantly for a second then inhales to calm her nerves, and when she exhales softly she grabs his hand then shakes it gently. "I guess it's nice to meet you too, square-eyes."

He blinks at the nickname he was given and, "Square-eyes?" He repeats dubiously, then when he releases his hand he remarks, "How rude! I have a name: Tenya Iida!"

She doesn't hear him, looking so engrossed at the hand she used to touch another. The warmth lingers and it softens her expression. Her eyes land back to the teen, and, "It's really nice meeting you." She says again, a coy smile curving her thin lips.

He gives her an incredulous stare because the tender look on her features seems out of place with the way she previously reacted to him, then once again he muses over her fair warning previously, about what she truly means when she looked so worried about a simple touch.

"Hey Karino, what's your quirk? Is that why you're not comfortable with handshakes?" He asks rather innocently.

Anya flinches, but the sound of ice breaking diverts her attention. The noise rumbles across the room and it echoes loudest at her feet. When she looks down she finds shattered pieces of ice by her feet, its trail coming from the foot of a boy sitting at the far back on the third column. His appearance stands out, having a large scar on the left side of his face.

"What the…?! You! What is the meaning of this?!" Iida calls out as he points an accusatory finger over the calm-looking teen.

The offender ignores him, his mismatched eyes fixed at the pale girl, and when he stomps his foot a new set of sharp icicles swiftly creep up to Anya's feet, only to shatter and break again.

"How…?" Someone among the room mutters.

Disbelief and surprise envelops the audience, for they recognize the evenly split colors on his hair - he is Shoto Todoroki, one of the students who got in Yuuei High Academy through official recommendations. They are aware of his background and the powerful quirk he wields, yet it doesn't seem to do much against Anya Karino, the mysterious student whose background and quirk are unknown to them yet, and they all assume she's a hero-sidekick already at the tender age of ten, because they remember the hero Eraser Head telling them she has been helping out the school for the past five years.

"…Surprise attacks don't work on you?" The teen finally speaks, staring suspiciously at the pale girl.

"You realize that's a violation of school rules." She replies in a rather chastened way.

Anya knows him because she remembers hearing Aizawa talk about some students in class 1-A getting accepted through recommendations. Though he isn't particular about that sort of thing, he has previously vocalized his dislike about such program. Unsurprisingly, Anya hates it too.

"You're a good student, if you being here through recommendations is any indication, so I suppose you're aware it is prohibited to use your quirk without permission or supervision within the school premises."

"…And you didn't use yours?" He returns, throwing her a rather inquisitive look.

She looks pointedly at him. "An exemption to the rule is when it's for self-defense. If I wasn't me, I could have gotten hurt. Think about that, _scar_."

His brow visibly twitches at the name he's given, but he doesn't retort back and instead, glares silently.

The silence is short-lived for Iida breaks it abruptly. "Hey! Don't you know it's rude to interrupt two people talking? You even tried to harm her! Apologize!" He demands, but the teen with a scar only spared him a quick glance before taking a seat. And before Iida can complain further, the bell rings, effectively dispelling the tension covering the whole classroom and signaling the students to scramble back to their seats.

Hizashi Yamada, best known as Present Mic, quickly makes his entrance and starts the class. He briefly gestures to Anya, who sits quite isolated at the far back of the room. He doesn't make any remark about it and proceeds with the topic for the morning.

Anya observes and listens attentively like a diligent student. She notices some students sneaking glances at her while two certain individuals - sparky boom-boy and scar-boy - don't even bother concealing their curiosity, staring holes at her the whole period. She turns a blind eye to them, constantly reminding herself of Aizawa's advice to her after her outburst:

 _All Might may have some point, maybe making friends can help you manage your emotions. I'm not particularly against you socializing, you should find an inspiration and make sure you study and train well. Hero work isn't a game, but you already know that, Anya._

The existence of heroes doesn't particularly excite her, and after 'the incident' she no longer understands the point of their existence. And for some reason she doesn't blame the villains, doesn't _want_ to blame them for the tragedy that befell her because she wholeheartedly accepts the teachings her late father has taught her: ' _There is no good or evil, just different opinions and varying perspectives.'_

And she sorely misses him, the father she admires for being a so-called 'bringer of peace to the mourning'. His work helps those who are left behind to heal the pain of their loss by giving proper respect to their dead through funerals. She has heard his clients say great things about him, that he's a talented mortician because however crushed or disfigured the corpse he receives, he's able to prepare and assemble them exactly how they looked before their deaths. Anya has never seen her father work personally, and due to the compliments she kept hearing she was utterly curious about it, but she's never going to see him work, not ever.

"Are there any more questions?!"

Present Mic's loud voice pulls Anya out of her musings and she realizes their English period has come to a close. She starts to stow her notepad and pens when a voice suddenly raises an unexpected, and rather distasteful question.

"Can I ask something about Anya Karino?"

Upon the mention of her name, her body jerks into attention. She cannot believe someone has the gall to ask about the person in their actual presence. She looks the student over, a boy with spiky red hair - the same boy who praised her quirk on the first day. She takes a mental note of him, deciding whether his boldness is an asset or a liability as a future hero.

Present Mic, on the other hand, lowers his sunglasses, his green concentric eyes staring curiously at the spiky red-haired teen. "What about her? Why not ask her directly when the person herself is present?"

"She's not exactly very friendly…" Another voice joins in. It belongs to a boy with lightning-shaped blond hair who sits right beside the redhead.

The statement breaks Yamada's face into a wide grin and he proceeds to strike another one of his weird poses, his fingers pointing at Anya's general direction. "Oho! Is this true, Anya dear?"

Anya sinks to her seat, already aware of what the loud blond is about to spout next.

"Then please stand up and come up front! Introduce yourself to your future colleagues, deary!" He proclaims, motioning both hands to have the girl do as he says.

All eyes are on her, and the frown she holds gets replaced by a sigh of defeat. She stands up and walks to the front, then turns to her audience and speaks, "I am Anya Karino, but you already know that. My quirk is," she pauses and throws a meaningful glance at Present Mic. The man responds with an affirmative nod after which she continues, "'Reflection', or at least that's what they call it. Essentially, I can reverse anything with magnitude and direction coming towards me. It's like a barrier over my entire body."

She hears gasps of mixed disbelief and awe and she notices others quietly popping their eyes wide open in either surprise or curiosity. She then closes her eyes and bows, as if ending a performance, then she turns to Yamada only to find him enjoying the moment, his tall slim frame shaking in mirth. Anya wonders what the older man finds so amusing at the sight of kids with their mouths agape.

After a while, he gets over his laughter and announces energetically, "And that's a wrap! Anya was only being shy, but she's really open about all kinds of things when you get to know her! Remember kids, do not judge the product on your first try, maybe you haven't read the manual yet so try again!"

Anya figures it's her cue to go back to her seat, and she does as another sigh escapes her lips.

Soon as the English hero-teacher steps outside the room, one certain student goes to confront her.

"WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH YOU?!" Bakugo shouts as he glares daggers at her.

It startles her, and, "What, exactly, do you want to hear from me?" She wonders aloud, because as far as she's heard, the question thrown at her is quite unclear.

"Reflection my ass!" He growls angrily, then points a finger to the direction of the teen with a scarred face and, "That bastard's ice shattered right beside your feet! How can simple reflection do that?!"

She looks at Bakugo for a moment then glances over to the scarred boy and, "I do wonder how…" She drawls, looking impassive at the subject.

"DON'T MAKE FUN OF ME!" He snarls the words, multiple explosions popping off his both palms as if to make a threat, or a warning, so to speak, yet it doesn't seem to faze Anya so. And it irks him, the indifference she displays to his show of quirk, of strength - his attempt to inspire _fear_ in her.

She gets off her seat in an abrupt manner then thrusts a hand over the angry teen, but the response she gets surprises her, for he suddenly jumps back, red eyes wary at the hand she offers. A bittersweet smile appears on her pale face, like a child hurt and betrayed by something she so trusts previously, then she withdraws her hand and says, "That's right, be alert and cautious at all times. Misplaced trust is the kind of carelessness a true hero must never commit."

Bakugo bristles at the tone in instant offense, and in his anger he motions to grab Anya by her collar but a boy of mossy green hair hampers his action.

"Stop it Kacchan!" He yells in caution, but the boy is hell bent on making an example out of the insolent pale girl, and he pushes the other teen away from his target.

"STAY OUT OF THIS, DAMN NERD!"

"No! Kacchan, stop already!" The boy seizes the other by his arm, hugging it tight as if his life depended on it, and, "Don't you remember her quirk? She'll just reflect your attack! You'll get hurt!"

Instead of terror and aversion, she hears the boy's genuine concern and a fondness so envious she wishes it's directed to her. It burns her chest hot, and her heart beats fast, from nervousness or shock, she isn't sure, but certainly, the boy of mossy green hair and symmetrical freckles on his cheeks has made a strong impression on her.

However, the explosive blond simply isn't caring enough to understand the green-haired teen's intention and misunderstands it as an insult, belittling his abilities - his potential to stand toe-to-toe with the supposed prodigious hero-sidekick that was Anya Karino. So, he proceeds to blow up on the other teen instead, exuding a barbaric countenance which inadvertently triggers the devil.

Anya pokes Bakugo below his clavicle and his gaze immediately falls to the area where he felt the touch, then suddenly a strong current seems to push him, and he gets swept off his feet then his back meets the cold hard wall across the room. He groans as he bounces off then falls down to the ground, suddenly out of breath with his heart pounding against his chest. He whips his head up and glowers at Anya suspiciously, then snarls, "YOU BITCH! YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!"

"INGRATE!" She snaps back, salmon orbs bulging and teeth bare in a menacing grimace. "You dare raise your fist at someone who cares for you greatly? How insulting! TRASH LIKE YOU SHOULD BE BURNING IN HELL!"

It astounds them, not just her usage of quirk but the whole show of it, because her anger is founded and justified, an unexpected trait to be discovered from the same person who previously told them they're getting expelled and clearly conveyed her pure dislike of them. In addition, they, too, felt the weight of her power and the principle she stands by, bolstering their feelings of intrigue towards her.

And they wonder, whatever else can her 'Reflection' quirk do, or a better question is, what _more_ can she do with her quirk? Perhaps, they'll find out soon enough, and they cannot wait to crack the code behind her _reflection_.

=/=

"I heard you hurt a student, Anya." Aizawa states, his expression apathetic yet his voice has a certain edge to it. "They provoked you?"

"Yes." Anya simply says, her face impassive.

"Katsuki Bakugo. He scored the highest during the school's entrance exam, having the most villain points. He has quite a powerful and versatile quirk, if I say so myself, but I understand where the problem lies." Aizawa looks at Anya for a long while, carefully contemplating his next words. Though it seems to him she doesn't care, he knows the gal always takes his opinion to heart, so he has to be specific and pick his words cautiously or he might cause a misapprehension that may become lethal to herself and to those around her. "If it's for self-defense, I don't mind, but when they goad you, biting them only reflects your incompetence. You should know better, violence doesn't solve everything."

".…I didn't break any of his limbs, though." She answers meekly, which in turn makes Aizawa frown.

"But you _hurt_ him. You knocked him off a wall, Anya. You do realize how hard the school walls are, yes?"

Anya winces at the acidity of his tone, but she doesn't answer, frowning ever so deeply.

"You're young, you've got a volatile temperament too, but you must keep in mind everyone has their own hell, and it's normal not to understand them fully." He pauses for a moment, then proceeds to gently pat her head and, "You're a good person, Anya, I know you always are."

"…I'll apologize to him." She says weakly, almost hesitantly, but when Aizawa agrees to her, she understands she has to do what she has declared to do then.

But as expected, she can never see eye to eye with the explosive blond teen, blatantly ignoring her sincere apology the next day, and as if it isn't enough, he sneers and insults her every chance he gets. It frustrates her greatly, and angers her considerably, but she makes an effort to control her temper and keep her composure, because she knows treating him to his own medicine burns hotter and hits harder than he'll ever admit.

* * *

 **A/N: Revision/rewriting done! (12-21-2019)**


	4. Good Fourth

**Be Good**

 **Good Fourth**

Anya Karino begins with a bow, like a curtsy in a dance, and when she takes a step the earth rifts beneath the toe of her silver pump, the fissures creeping towards her opponent. She follows with quick, light taps, making the tiny rocks and debris produced from it shoot forth like bullets, but they reach nothing except air, because that which they need pierce nimbly dodges.

Her opponent isn't the all-powerful hero All Might, or her wicked guardian Eraser Head, but a student the same age as she, and although she sees him as inferior to her in every possible way, this teen is just as much of a genius. He is pure instinct, producing multiple explosions to serve as smokescreen to allow for surprise tactics. He actively finds a way to bypass her quirk's ability, showing a high degree of agility and flexibility. In contrast, she doesn't move much, a glaring preference to stand in wait and simply watch, but an obvious bait nonetheless. Her quirk works better against surprise attacks, but she knows he knows it well, so she highly anticipates his next set of moves. Putting aside his tall pride, the explosive blond does have what it takes and can show for it - Anya hates to admit it.

An explosion to her face, the pungent smell of heated nitroglycerin attacks her nose, and as the smoke clears she finds herself staring straight at an open palm covered in a black and orange colored glove. It shocks her, not the speed at which Kasuki Bakugo closed their gap, but at their apparent proximity. Their battle have just begun yet he already approximated the default range at which her quirk takes effect.

As much as she despises it, Anya thinks it an impressive feat.

"What the-! So you reflect not the 'power' itself, but simply the 'matter' involved." He states, as if he's telling it to himself, a comprehension of affairs, of what _makes_ her quirk. "Reflecting tiny-ass moisture like this…" He mumbles, and he hears a tinge of nervousness in his own voice, and it irritates him, the understanding that he isn't the only one, that there are others more out there who are just as special as him, or have the potential to even surpass him. It's the threat he has felt previously, a threat to his enormous ego, and, "WHAT _CAN'T_ YOU REFLECT THEN?!" He growls, angry and irritated and frustrated. "I SWEAR I'LL BREAK YOU!"

=/=

In the heroics department, afternoon classes are the students' most awaited period of the day in their daily school life because it also translates into combat training; they get to use their quirks and show it off to one another, the very power making them unique, allowing them to distinguish themselves as someone _special_ \- the word makes Anya almost vomit.

Being a hero is every man's romance - a very _possible_ dream nowadays in their society with these mysterious special abilities suddenly emerging within them. However, the power difference, usage, its nature and types are all random, until people realize certain quirks can be passed down to their offspring with some upgrades or evolution if they get lucky. Marriage of quirks is becoming a thing lately, and it isn't so surprising to see someone jealous of another for their quirks. It's uncommon for anyone to curse their own power, let alone mourn or fear it - Anya Karino belongs to this uncommonness.

"Since when were you able to touch me without using erasure, Shota?"

Aizawa looks her over with his droopy eyes ever so sleepy, then looks forward again. He finds her question curious, because he has always figured she herself is aware of the reason - the _condition_ that which cancels out the effect of her quirk.

The two have been walking the long corridor leading to class 1-A's room, though Aizawa has a different destination in mind. Anya has just finished her lunch, at the cafeteria of course, but apparently she dislikes the crowd of 'fools', as she puts it, so she left the place once her hunger is satisfied, as per Lunch Rush's story anyway. He's the one who brought her to Aizawa's office, or at least what the raven-haired hero refers to his own personal space at the teachers' quarters, and she insists to stay with him for the remaining time until afternoon classes begin.

"Shota?" She calls, a frown creasing her forehead. "Are you listening?"

"I am." He drawls, then pauses to glance at a wall clock they happen to pass by. "It's about time you get back to class, Anya."

"I will once I get an answer."

Aizawa turns to her fully and proceeds to pat her head. "Anya, I am able to do this because _you_ allow me to."

Anya stares at him, a little confused, but he knows she believes him - believes _in_ him. He ruffles her hair then, silver strands tangling around his fingers then slipping smoothly as he pulls away.

"Be more confident with yourself. You're in control now." He tells her blandly, and although Anya still hasn't grasped the meaning he's meant to convey, she feels as if he has saved her yet again, and she decides that perhaps for now it's enough.

"I AM HERE!"

A familiar jovial voice startles her, and suddenly the asphalt under her feet splits followed by a gale blowing past her. Aizawa sighs, his obsidian eyes glaring beyond her.

"All Might, must you always make your entrance this annoying **_every single time_**?" The raven-haired hero-teacher sighs wearily, emphasizing his last words to get a point across. "How irrational."

The man addressed ignores the remark entirely and instead, throws them a wide proud grin. He pats Anya lightly in the head as if to congratulate her for a job well done, and, "Good! The wall is intact, though the floor still cracks." He lets out a small laugh then offers a hand to the pale girl. "It's almost time for afternoon classes. I'll be with class 1-A for this period, young Anya. Let us go together!"

She nods her head in agreement and takes All Might's hand, all the while marveling at how the man's large hand gingerly wraps over hers, and she feels his calloused palm, hardened by relentless training and so thick, and she finds the contrast against the sleek of her skin humbling because this great hero has worked hard to become who he is. She looks up to him and sees his face plastered still with a jolly smile, and somehow she feels she understands him a little; his concept of heroes, their meaning and value in his perspective.

While walking, Anya looks behind her and she catches Aizawa already on his way to someplace, and she watches his back shrink from her view, wondering about his own concept of hero. She spends most of her time together with him yet she still finds it difficult to read and understand the man, making her feel a little down about it.

"I don't know if I've said this to you yet, young Anya, but I'm glad to see you." All Might starts, bringing the girl's attention back to him. He's unaware of her thoughts wandering off as he remains to face forward, nonetheless, he continues, "You've made a great deal of improvement," he shifts his gaze down to the child then grins, "I'd say you've grown a lot since the last time I saw you."

The remark catches her off guard, and she feels the color rising on her cheeks, but she fights it down and, "Didn't we just see each other the day before yesterday?" She retorts back but she fails to hold his gaze, swinging her head to the side to avoid his bright blue eyes.

He chortles, the kind how one titters to a half-baked joke. "Ah yes! I've been forgetful these days, forgive me. Allow me to correct myself," he halts on his tracks, making her halt as well, then he stares at her straight in the eyes as he says, "Young Anya, my girl, you used to shatter floors and burst walls open but look at you now. Being able to walk the corridors together with you this physically close is, in itself, a great achievement. I'm very happy and proud of you Anya, my girl!"

When he resumes to walk, Anya follows with unsteady feet, the unaccustomed sound of approval leaves her reeling.

Anya has learned to live with her epithet 'the devil', a brand she decides to embrace and wears on her sleeve. She reminds them firmly of who she is and what her quirk can do, resulting to everyone around her becoming automatically wary of her, keeping a reasonable distance from her and proffering responses only when unavoidable. Nezu and Aizawa are capable of holding proper conversations with her, or to be precise, comfortable in her presence. They don't hesitate to reprimand her, and they stay close to her, never making her feel like unwanted and fearsome.

And perhaps, All Might is one too, but she will much later realize it so, for she's in such a daze at the time that her head cannot catch up to the emotions suddenly welling up within her simply from a remark given by this very same man.

Anya is guilty of being hastily judgmental of those around her, but maybe she'll finally begin to be gentle and kind, to open up a little more to strangers, no, to potential companions.

Not later, the two have reached their destination.

"I HAVE COME THROUGH THE DOOR, LIKE NORMAL!" All Might announces as he enters class 1-A's room, proud and exuberant, flashily sticking out like a sore thumb due to his arguably unique overall appearance.

The students look thrilled to see him, and he hears them chatter about his incredible presence, their amazement and reverence to the fact they are being taught by the Symbol of Peace himself. Thanks to his overwhelming presence and charisma, Anya manages to slip past the door unnoticed and quietly reaches her seat just in time as All Might announces their agenda for the day: hero basic training.

"This is the class that will put you through all sorts of special training to mold you into heroes! It also gives you tons of credits, so work hard!" He declares then strikes a pose, showing a card with the word 'battle' written on it. "No time to dally. Today's activity is this! Battle training!"

And no sooner, all students assemble themselves at Ground Beta wearing their hero costumes, excited and giddy at seeing the suits and gears of one another, eagerly looking forward to the kind of challenge All Might is about to throw at them.

"For today, you will be doing an indoor anti-personnel battle training! Villain battles are most commonly seen outdoors. But statistically, the most heinous villains are more likely to appear indoors." All Might explains enthusiastically while his students evidently and attentively listens. "Between confinement, black market deals, house arrest, in this hero-filled society of ours, the cleverest villains out there lurk indoors! That is to say, you'll now be split into villain teams and hero teams and face off in two-on-two indoor battles!" He proclaims with a mighty tone, energetic and rousing, and he ends with a detailed explanation of the training mechanics - the scenario, objectives, and conditions for winning.

"What about her?" A short girl whose appearance is frog-like asks, her large, black irises looking over the pale girl keeping quiet behind All Might. "She's not wearing the school's p.e. uniform so I'm assuming that's her hero costume."

The man looks at Anya, then stares for a moment, reveling in the oddity of her hero costume choice: a long, fiery red dress with rose-pattern embellishment on one side, mixed with skin-colored fragments on the arms, back and neck area which gives the illusion of transparency; it covers her whole body and on her feet are a pair of silver pumps.

Due to her quirk's nature, she has no real need to meticulously choose her costume; they doubt anything can affect the way her quirk performs. Besides, if they do find an equipment suitable for her quirk, the most ideal is something which can suppress its power. Otherwise, enhancing it might be a little too dangerous. But Anya previously refused the making of her hero costume vehemently, saying she doesn't want to take part in that sort of idiocy, yet she acquiesced in her decision after Midnight's constant pestering. Or maybe she's convinced it's okay to wear something special to distinguish herself as someone else - someone who isn't 'the devil', and she spoils herself by picking something she has long desired to wear, to feel beautiful and desired, to satisfy her thirst for attention.

And so, her hero costume does nothing to her quirk, but does wonders on her emotional capacity and tolerance.

"You said two-on-two but if we count Karino, there will be a team with an extra member." The frog-like girl, Tsuyu Asui, adds, putting her index finger on her chin as she tilts her head slightly to think.

"Teacher Aizawa had her participate last time." Another short girl comments. She is Ochako Uraraka, possessing large, round brown eyes and a warm brown bobbed hair. "Will you make her our reference too?"

All Might hums, pretending he hasn't been sidetracked by the sight of the pale girl looking happy and contented in a flashy dress. To him, it's an amazing discovery, and at the same time he finds it sad too, that Anya actually wants to be noticed.

"For this training, Anya Karino shall only observe. But if I see a team with excellent performance, then I'll consider pitting them against her."

His declaration sparks something within them, and their eyes seem to ignite, setting their motivation and interest ablaze for a new-found goal - a chance to challenge the 'wonder child', the supposed hero-sidekick of the elusive Eraser Head.

The chance he speaks of doesn't exist, more precisely, he doesn't intend to bestow it on them. At least not yet, and it is certainly not for him to grant.

However-

"How about making her take the villain role and all of us get the hero role instead?" Someone among the students suggests - a girl of pink skin, Mina Ashido. "It'll be exciting! Plus, it's a waste if she's just watching, since she's already in costume too!"

All attention are on her then, and All Might does consider the idea.

"I think it's fair, since the conditions for winning don't necessarily demand us to subdue the villain." Another student joins in - a mature-looking girl wearing quite a revealing hero costume for a teen. She is Momo Yaoyorozu, who, similar to Shoto Todoroki, got accepted through recommendations. "Karino wields a powerful quirk, I believe we will learn more if she participates." She offers, her onyx eyes glancing briefly over the pale girl.

All Might takes a peek at Anya, her expression blank, and he doesn't know what might be running inside her head by then. He is unsure of allowing the students to challenge the devil at such an early stage, but their enthusiasm to overcome such a tall mountain moves him, and when he spots Izuku Midoriya looking ever more determined, he allows his gut feeling to take over and grants them their wish.

"Well then, for this battle training, Anya Karino will play the role of villain." He turns to Anya then nods, and, "Like I explained earlier, you'll have to either capture the villain or secure the weapon. Heroes lose when they are instead subdued or they fail to take the weapon until time is up." He then produces a lottery box and urges the students to draw lots for their battle partners.

"Are you sure about this, Uncle Might?" Anya mutters soon as the man returns to her side. "I know it doesn't matter whether they win or lose since you're the one grading them, but Shota uses me to _crush_ brats like them."

He smiles, and, "I have no doubt you'll crush them, young Anya, but these kids have resilient hearts. I'm sure it'll take more than a beating from you to destroy their wills to strive for their dreams." He tells her patiently.

She gives him a long look, and her eyes droop as if recalling a remote memory, and, "Dreams, huh? I'd like to strive for mine too, if possible…"

All Might hears the sadness in her voice, her salmon eyes reflect a weariness of a soldier fighting in a losing war, and it pains him. "You've made a remarkable progress, my girl. It's so soon for you to give up."

She sighs, then shifts her gaze back to the students readying themselves for the beginning of their training; the arduous journey they are about to embark. Envy, jealousy, hatred - Anya can't help but feel robbed at the sight. "I've long since given up, uncle. You already know that."

He doesn't reply, doesn't _want_ to reply anymore. He knows Anya will keep shooting down whatever words of encouragement he can throw at her. He's aware of how she detests the hand fate has dealt her, and she abhors heroes in general. But, he fervently hopes that her view of the world improves overtime, and the scar left by the pain of her tragic past heals soon before her own darkness consumes her.

Moving on, the first pair to go up against Anya Karino is the team of Katsuki Bakugo and Tenya Iida, and the explosive blond teen shows evident delight as his face breaks into a wide, menacing grin.

"BRING IT!" He exclaims, directing it to the pale girl yet the only response he gets from her is a perfunctory nod.

Anya Karino goes inside the designated building first, then the hero pair follows. The timer starts soon as the two entered the building, and obviously, Bakugo's plan is to straight up duel Anya.

"Her quirk is reflection! It's best to simply capture the weapon!" Tenya Iida reasons, along with strange hand gestures in an effort to convince the hot-headed teen. "We need accomplish only one of the conditions! We don't have to battle her!"

"This is exactly why you're an extra!" Bakugo shouts back at him. "Go do whatever! That bitch is mine to kill!"

They don't argue for long as they fall silent, remaining wary as they traverse each floor at a steady pace, yet it's strange to them, that Anya Karino hasn't made a move to capture them. When they reached the top floor of the building, they discover Anya Karino waiting idly by the weapon she's supposed to protect. It infuriates Bakugo, because he interprets the implication of her action as an insult, a display of complacence, that perhaps he is not worth an effort.

Before he can even begin his attack, she shocks him by bowing, as if in acknowledgement or greeting, he's uncertain, and it riles him up even further, the gall to make fun of him like that, but as he's about to act she acts too, and when she steps the asphalt floor splits, then suddenly tiny rocks dart to pierce through him. He responds fast by pure instinct, then proceeds to counter yet ends up sustaining damage instead. Her reflection will be a pain to crack, Bakugo figures, but it fires him up, the idea of breaking a hero-sidekick this early.

Tenya Iida, on the other hand, focuses on their true objective: securing the weapon. He knows his own limits and, though begrudgingly at that, accepts he doesn't stand a chance against Anya Karino in battle. So, despite thinking Bakugo to be a fool for challenging the pale girl, he realizes the hot-blooded teen's action is a distraction. He concludes he need only a window of opportunity to seize the weapon sitting behind Anya's back, and the key to that is whether Bakugo is capable of driving her away from the weapon or not.

Five minutes past and Anya hasn't moved from where she stands, consistently countering whatever Bakugo throws at her. She doesn't even try to make the first move, and when the angry teen pauses for a moment only to shoot her a glare, she simply stares back and wait.

"So all you're capable of doing is reflecting attacks! Pathetic! You're practically useless against a weak-ass enemy! Be glad I'm incredibly strong!" He sneers, but it doesn't seem to affect her very much. He's merely masking the fact he's ran out of ideas, and he's becoming impatient and bitter and irritated; all he desires is to crush her, put a scratch on her or scorch her dress, yet it seems difficult to accomplish even for him, the _great_ him!

Anya gestures to her dress, and, "It's not pathetic if it works. You haven't even touched my dress, boom boy." She states plainly, her features seemingly bored. "Come now and keep attacking. You never know, maybe you'll reach me by the end of the remaining time."

Her provocation gets to him, and his anger gets the better of him. So, without thinking he pounces on her, delivering a big right hook only for Anya catching his fist single-handedly, then like a reflex Bakugo refrains from producing an explosion on his caught fist, for he can tell he's at a disadvantage at that very moment.

Anya gives him a quick squeeze, earning her a restrained hiss from the prideful teen. He wears a perpetual scowl then, determined to deny her the pleasure of seeing his pained expression. In a swift movement he throws a left jab, only to have it repelled; unbroken.

"Is this all?" She asks, and her voice grates on his nerves, her tone sounding like a dare to him.

Bakugo, for the first time in his life, cannot think of a comeback at the time, and all he ever accomplished then is to silently glare at her composed, pale face.

Her brows curl slightly, as if making an expression of pity, and suddenly he is thrown to the side, his back hitting solid wall. Unlike the first time he's thrown against a wall, he's now impressed hard against it, cracks at the shape of his silhouette marks its cement as he falls off.

"Bakugo!" Iida yells in shock as he goes to the other teen's aid. The boy has been thrown to his direction, and by then he has come to a realization that Anya Karino is indeed aware of his location, of his very plan to win against her.

"Shut up! Don't come near me!" Bakugo angrily screams, immediately picking himself up off the rubble and debris. "I don't need your help, get back you fucking extra!"

"Listen to me! We need to work together! All we have to do is aim for the weapon, not Karino!"

"You fucking blind four-eyes?! What do you think I've been doing all this time, moron?!"

"Attacking Karino isn't smart, Bakugo, and you know it!"

"And how do you propose we approach the damn weapon?! HUH?!"

As they argue, Anya decides to approach them, in her hands a bundle of rope, walking casually as if sightseeing in a park, yet her gaze remains on them, like a predator approaching its prey. Then, as she passes by a stone pillar she brushes it with her hand, breaking it down into rocks of varying shapes and sizes and sending them like projectiles towards their general direction.

Their initial reaction to that is to scatter and dodge, and when Iida notices Anya's distance from his objective, he becomes bold enough to attempt running past her to capture the weapon and grab their team the victory they need before the timer runs out on them.

It's risky, Iida is well aware, yet to be bold and courageous to take the risk is what makes him a hero, he believes. And so, he charges toward her, commanding his turbo engines in his legs to run full throttle. He has no idea about the range Anya's reflection can cover, so he chooses to make a sharp turn to her left when he's about three feet away from her and proceeds to actually get past her. After passing her he doesn't let up, keeping up his speed and putting up his guards ever more stronger in spite getting nearer to the weapon, and once he has finally seized the objective the announcement of the heroes' clear victory reverberates throughout the whole building.

"Yes! I did it! We won!" He cries proudly, happy and relieved.

When he turns around he sees Bakugo standing still, seemingly surprised and dumbfounded, and after a second the blond teen explodes in anger and starts shouting profanities and insults over to him and of course, over Anya Karino too. It doesn't look like she minds though, her gaze strangely glued on himself for the remaining seconds, and for a brief moment he thinks he saw her smile at him a little. He can't be too sure, perhaps his watery eyes are only playing some tricks on him.

The next pair is the team of Izuku Midoriya and Ochako Uraraka. They decide on concentrating all efforts into capturing the weapon, their plan entailing of Izuku Midoriya luring Anya away from it then Ochako Uraraka goes for the capture of the weapon.

It took him a while to force the pale girl into moving away from their objective, yet somehow he feels it isn't because his plan is effective but instead because she only did so out of pity, or perhaps out of something else entirely, he isn't sure. After the first pair's victory, Midoriya has had this suspicion that Iida didn't really get past her, rather, she _allowed_ Iida to get past her. As they fight in real time, Midoriya carefully studies how Anya's quirk works, and he fails to figure out any flaws to her power, or a weakness to exploit and to use against her. It unnerves him, that her quirk seems so absolute and invincible, and it terrifies him to think he may be at her mercy, his survival all depending on her judgment and mood.

"Why do you want to become a hero?" Anya asks out of the blue.

Midoriya is caught off guard, yet he thinks it makes sense for someone of her position to ask such a question. He's a student, an aspiring hero, while she's already a hero-sidekick. He assumes it must be a test and he's about to be graded based on his answer.

But, graded or not, he's always ready to give an honest answer to anyone who asks. For it is his dream, the dream that seems so impossible before and now, he's granted the opportunity to make it a reality.

"I want to be a hero for the people in need. I want to save those who cannot fight for themselves, to let them know there is someone out there who will never abandon them!" He answers boldly, proud and without that strange stutter he seems stricken with when speaking with to the opposite sex.

Anya halts, watching the green-haired teen quietly as he continues to run away from her. Shortly, he realizes she has stopped chasing after him and pauses, turning to her fully and starts to wonder in silence.

She opens her mouth and, "You're just one person, how are you going to save every person in need?"

He freezes, his body shuddering from the sheer coldness of her tone, and her salmon eyes gaze at him just as coldly, speaking volumes of that which he hasn't seen yet. She must have been through hell, he imagines.

"...I still want to become a hero, to be like All Might. Someone who is dependable, and always smiling, a comfort to the masses! I will save everyone! I know I can!"

"How?"

His jaw clenches at that, he doesn't know what to answer to that, rather, he doesn't really know what _how._ Previously, all he ever thinks is to look ahead and to live in the present. In truth, he believes he can help people and save them with the use of his quirk, but somehow, by the tone of her voice and her piercing gaze, he knows she seeks an answer besides that - besides the shallowness of simply saying 'using my quirk'.

He bites his lip, and carelessly replies anyway, "...W-With my quirk, I'll save those in need. I can help people with my power!" He groans internally, almost cursing himself for the stutter he made.

She frowns, and only responds with, "I see." There isn't any emotion attached to it, just a plain, simple phrase, yet Midoriya feels ever more nervous.

"THE HERO TEAM WINS!"

Again, another announcement of the hero team winning. While they conversed, Ochako Uraraka, his teammate, grabbed the opportunity to take the weapon, granting them their victory. And although they won the battle, Midoriya feels he just lost an important war of words.

The following pairs who challenged Anya next either won by focusing into capturing the weapon or lost by being captured by Anya herself. There are also those whose timer ran out due to either foolishness or stubbornness, and the whole battle training ends with some students finding more inspiration to hold onto their dreams, others having increased motivation to get better and stronger, and a few with a deeper understanding of the reality they are about to face.

* * *

 **A/N: Revised/rewritten done! (01-11-2020)**

 **I actually wanted this chapter to be longer but, yeah, happens you know. Turns out I'm changing quite a lot with how the story goes, though I don't think I changed the whole plot entirely. Okay, maybe half of it has changed... Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter! Updates will remain irregular. So sorry about that...**

 **Notice** : ** _I have revised/rewritten this story since the first chapter. Apologies for all the confusion, folks._**


	5. Good Fifth

**Be Good**

 **Good Fifth**

"Excuse me! Does All Mi- Eh?! Such a mess! Who are you?!"

"He's not here today. Can you move? I have a class to attend to."

Early at seven in the morning, a multitude of people from the media swarms the prestigious school of U.A. People behind the business of controversy immediately grabs the new hot topic on newspaper and television - the news of All Might taking a temporary leave from the hero agency to teach. For this purpose, they send their best journalists, newscasters and news reporters to catch the Symbol of Peace and force him into an interview regarding this issue.

The news have surely shocked the whole nation for it is rather a bizarre and sudden decision, especially coming from the greatest hero himself, All Might. However, it is naive to think that these mass media are on the hero's side. Juicy gossips and hot controversies sell better than the truth, so of course the media's true aim is to confirm these floating rumors of poor taste.

And it is precisely why Shota Aizawa hates the media.

Our raven-haired hero usually goes to school on time. Time is precious, and so is his sleep, causing him to stick to a strict timetable. He dislikes arriving early as much as he dislikes getting late. At the time, Aizawa is aware of the news about All Might becoming a teacher spreading through papers and television so he isn't very surprised to see the uproar of the media. Two days passed since the news have gotten publicized, and perhaps the only surprise to him is it has taken them this long to actually show their faces at U.A.'s doors and make a ruckus about it.

"All Might! All Might!"

"Come on! We'd just like to ask All Might…"

Aizawa sighs as the crowd kept chattering on and on about All Might. Once he gets through the school's large gate, a single beep sounds, followed by a loud clang of hefty metal.

It is a signal that someone other than U.A. staff or student attempted to enter the school's premises.

The hero academy has a barrier system which serves as countermeasure against trespassers and intruders. The whole place locks down if someone without a school I.D. or a visitor pass approaches the gate. There are more sensors throughout the whole campus, and this is all to ensure their students' safety.

With the growing amount of villains, Principal Nezu cannot afford to let any unauthorized person enter his school - it's like allowing villains to infiltrate sacred grounds, especially with its walls sheltering the individual labeled as 'the devil'. Negligence constitutes a horrible end to the hero society.

Class 1-A's homeroom teacher arrives at an oddly quiet, and somehow tense room.

"Good work with yesterday's battle training. I've looked over your grades and evaluations." He announces without preamble, scanning some documents on his table. He briefly glances at the pale girl who sits quietly at the far back of the room then his eyes sweeps over the many heads of his students, and, "On that note, I heard from All Might it was your idea to compete against Anya Karino."

The tense silence grows heavier until a student of pink skin raises her hand and speaks up.

"That was me, sir! It was my idea, since Karino was in hero costume too. I feel it unfair to just leave her on the sidelines, sir!"

He looks at the girl, and, "I see. Well, how did you all find her?"

"She is very strong, indeed!" Tenya Iida answers bluntly.

"She's kind of intimidating as an opponent…" Tsuyu Asui, the frog-like female student seconds.

"Really, really strong. And scary too." Denki Kaminari, the male student with a lightning-shaped blond hair, adds.

".…Unfair, a bit." Toru Hagakure, the invisible girl, also comments.

"I must say, her quirk is a mystery." Fumikage Tokoyami, the male student with a head of a black bird (possibly resembling that of a crow or a raven), states solemnly.

"Sure she's strong and all but," Mina Ashido, the pink-skinned female turns to look at the pale girl and beams at her, "Like I told you yesterday, your dress is beautiful, Karino! For someone untouchable, it's a great choice to catch attention!"

Receiving such an unexpected remark from the one who lost against her, Anya can feel her eyes widen in a mix of shock and disbelief. The team of Mina Ashido and Yuga Aoyama is one of the few teams who suffered defeat due to Anya's fickle mood, making her end the battle swift by actually taking the initiative and capturing them. For a moment she opens her mouth, a word of gratitude already at the tip of her tongue, but she doesn't get to say it thanks to another voice injecting their own opinion on the matter.

"Next time you should show more skin too." Minoru Mineta, a very small male student with a large round head says as he throws her a lascivious look.

Anya doesn't show any discernible reaction to that while the other girls respond to him in utter disgust. Not later she catches a mismatched pair of orbs glaring sharply at her, but she pretends she hasn't noticed yet and shifts her gaze to the raven-haired hero whose obsidian eyes seem to have never left her since the beginning.

Aizawa sighs and, "If that's all then, let's proceed with homeroom business."

"Teacher, may I?" A quiet voice, belonging to a student with heterochromatic eyes who has been silently listening on the background, abruptly speaks up. "Does she have a weakness? Anything at all?"

Aizawa narrows his eyes on him suspiciously, and, "Shoto Todoroki," he says in acknowledgement as he is reminded of All Might's evaluation of the teen which he finds, in truth, a little shocking.

His standards are very high, and by logic he expects the son of the number two hero to perform well, if not extraordinarily. Yet it seems he has forgotten to take into consideration the brat's pride and confidence, because the teen possesses a very powerful quirk, wielding both the elements of fire and ice. In hindsight, Anya Karino possesses a quirk that rejects anything she deems harmful, and this fact is the reason as to why he isn't very surprised to hear All Might's report regarding Shoto Todoroki's defeat. According to him, the boy was too eager to reach the devil, repeatedly attempting to freeze her over and over to the point where his student partner, Mezo Shoji, has become paralyzed by his ice. As a result, All Might has given him a poor grade.

".…I have an idea why you're asking. However, I am not obligated to give you an answer."

He frowns to that then opens his mouth, but he hesitates for a moment, and, "…Do not misunderstand, teacher, I am simply curious."

The man glances at Anya, holding her gaze for a few seconds before looking back at the evenly split colors of white and red on his hair, and, "Well, she's got a short range." He says in finality, yet it doesn't seem satisfying to the young teen.

"Other than that?"

"A short temper."

"That doesn't sound like a weakness to me."

"Anya is right here with us. You've got questions, ask her. Not me."

Todoroki falls silent, biting his lips as he kept them zipped then. The boy usually wears an indifferent expression so seeing him frown over it makes Aizawa sigh.

"You failed to freeze Anya and was subdued instead, correct?" He speaks as if simply recalling what he's told, making the teen jolt in unease.

Todoroki grits his teeth in anxiety, then throws a glare at his teacher. "That was-"

"Overconfidence is an insidious killer, kid." Aizawa interrupts, practically reprimanding the teen. "It's true you've a powerful quirk, but you ought to keep in mind you're not the only one with. Never underestimate anyone. This is a superhero society, Todoroki. Even me who doesn't look anything special at first glance can beat you down no sweat."

His head droops in defeat, and, "…Understood." He mutters weakly in response.

Aizawa looks over to the pale girl and says, "That goes for you too, Anya. All Might told me you slacked off."

Anya returns his gaze with her own and replies with a crisp "I was merciful."

Her answer spurs something among the students, a discord of mixed vexation and unease; particularly to an explosive blond teen, and the sound of screeching wood pierces through the air as he abruptly rises from his seat. Multiple explosions pop off his hands, and with an angry scowl he shouts, "FUCKING BITCH! ALL YOU DID WAS STAND AROUND AND DO NOTHING YET YOU THINK YOU'RE SO DAMN GREAT?! TO HELL WITH YOU!"

"Bakugo, calm down." Aizawa commands yet it doesn't seem like the teen is willing to listen.

"She has to have a weakness! She damn well _has_ to!" Bakugo exclaims, pointing an accusatory finger over the teen in question. "Everyone has it, even All Might should have limits too! I REFUSE TO BELIEVE SHE'S FUCKING INVINCIBLE! THERE IS NO SUCH DAMN THING!"

Aizawa heaves a heavy sigh, and, "You're not wrong. Anya _does_ have a weakness, but you're acting too irrational to figure it out yourselves. It's meaningless if I just spoon-fed you, so sit down and compose yourself, Bakugo."

The teen reluctantly accedes to the command, but he doesn't mask his protests to it, loudly groaning about it.

Aizawa decides to ignore him, though he can feel there is still a bit of unrest among the children. In hopes of dispersing their anxiety he proceeds with homeroom business, in which case they are supposed to elect their set of class officers. The unexpected 'normal school-like thing' he announces does the trick and they actively participate into settling the subject. They then settle it quickly through voting and the results are far from interesting.

=/=

Aizawa mostly spends his lunchtime sleeping after satisfying his hunger. His lunch consists with the exact amount of nutrients needed to sustain an average person's body and he eats in an unhurried manner yet finishes his food in brief minutes.

This time, the raven-haired hero-teacher is accompanied by a bulky man with short spiky gray hair, Sekijiro Kan, the Blood Hero: Vlad King, in the teachers' lounge area. The man is also a hero-teacher in the institution teaching in the hero course, specifically as the homeroom teacher for Class 1-B, the rival class of Aizawa's Class 1-A.

"So, it seems your class got a taste of Anya's power." Vlad pauses, looking pointedly at the raven-haired teacher. "I thought you only allow your class to challenge her by the second semester of their second year, plus, I have this impression you're not the type to allow anyone meddling into your affairs with the devil, not even the Symbol of Peace himself, so why?"

"It was simply All Might being irrational _and_ meddlesome. I never gave him permission to use Anya for that battle training."

"Really now?"

The two of them sits in silence for a while until Aizawa releases a sigh. "I should be the one complaining here. It's a good thing Anya reports to me directly. Otherwise, I wouldn't have known immediately."

The gray-haired hero eyes Aizawa skeptically as he ate, then asks, "Don't you find it strange that Anya would obey All Might instead of you?"

He shifts in his seat, but keeps his lips pursed, his restlessness evident from the way his tired droopy eyes constantly glances over the white smoke hovering above his hot cup of coffee. "…Perhaps my instructions to her were inadequate."

"I bet she wanted to participate from the beginning. She hates aspiring heroes the most, especially those she thinks unworthy of the title."

"If she's simply that eager to teach them a lesson, I don't really mind."

Vlad reaches down to his glass of water and drinks, emptying the whole glass in five gulps. With a satisfied puff, he places his glass back down with a vigor, slightly shaking their table before he resumes to speak, "Anyway, Eraser, I expect you to give the same treatment to my class."

"Huh?"

"It's only fair. Both classes belong to the heroics department, and I'm sure my class will pick up a lot from battling the devil herself."

"Hah, you wish."

The table shakes vigorously, the pieces of tableware placed on it rattle from the force Vlad's gloved fist lands. "Do not underestimate my class, Eraser! I'm certain they will be able to find a way to triumph against her reflection!"

Aizawa regards the taller man in silence as he considers the idea. Although he has his reservations, he finds no reason to refuse the idea.

"We'll see, but it won't be soon."

"Eraser you cheat!"

"By the way, Vlad, I heard there's a kid in your class who can duplicate and use another quirk."

"Ah, you mean Monoma." Vlad answers as his student's face wearing a disdainful look comes into mind. "Yes, the boy has high potential but, well, his personality isn't the best."

"Mm, doesn't really matter. I'd like to strike a deal." Aizawa holds out his stirring spoon and points it to the taller man. "Lend me that kid and I'll schedule Anya to your class soon."

Before Vlad can give his response, thunderous sirens blare throughout the campus, startling both hero teachers. Without needing for words, the two exchange glances and swiftly springs up into action.

Aizawa makes his way to the outdoor school grounds and finds a tall blond man already fending off the intruders in the form of the press corps. His sunglasses obscures his irritation upon the matter but the tone of his voice clearly spouts the growing temper he struggles to suppress.

"He's out today!" The blond shouts, his voice loud and clear thanks to the speakers around his neck amplifying it.

"Just give us a comment. That's all we want!" The press insists, thrusting their microphones forward and directing their cameras to the duo.

"If we give you people an inch, you'll ask for a mile." Aizawa states, although not as loud as he would like due to the other party's clattering. He gestures for them to calm down yet the press doesn't seem too interested to back down.

"This is completely illegal. Villainous, even. Can we blow them away already?"

"Lay off it, Mic. They'll write what they want either way. Let's wait for the cops."

And so, the two hero teachers are stuck with controlling the crowd and holding them off to prevent any of the trespassers entering the campus until the police force arrives and resolves the chaos.

=/=

Chaos.

It has been so long since Anya witnessed such an event, yet despite the length of time that has passed perhaps it is the difference in gravity which allowed her to stay collected. Silently watching the students scramble in panic, she remains in her seat isolated from the long tables of the cafeteria, because she knows she'll end up making the situation worse if she joins their horde.

Suddenly, to her side she hears someone laugh, and when she takes a peek, a pair of purple irises greet her, reminding her of the pretty blue periwinkle flowers on their garden which keep the soil healthy. But when those same eyes smile mockingly, she remembers the threat those same flowers pose in a natural environment where the only law that holds true is survival of the fittest.

"Hah! Look at them scurry all over the place just from an alarm. Disgraceful!" He remarks, then he lets out another harsh, derisive laugh.

Anya finds him odd, then asks, "Isn't it a normal response to an alarm? We're supposed to evacuate because this means an enemy has infiltrated our campus."

"You seriously think Yuuei can be invaded? What grim thoughts! I like it!" He replies in frank sarcasm, and, "Obviously, this is simply a drill. Nothing more. And here I thought Yuuei High only accepts the best of the best students. I must say, I am mortified to call those fools my schoolmates in this prestigious institution." He adds, his voice still laced in a sardonic tone, then after a short pause he turns to face her, and, "That said, you don't seem as foolish. I don't think I've seen you before. Which department do you belong to?"

Anya decides not to answer and simply stares, warily watching him. She doesn't want to cause a commotion - doesn't want to aggravate the already messy situation - so as much as she can help it she doesn't allow him to get near her.

The boy interprets her silence as something akin to defiance, and makes him wonder if she actually belongs to the heroics department, because if she does then he's certain she's in Class 1-A.

Or maybe she finds it rude of him not to introduce himself first before asking for her identity, because roles reversed he knows he will respond similarly, if not throwing the other an injurious remark instantly.

"Neito Monoma," he says, smiling. "I'm in the heroics department, from Class 1-B." He offers her a hand, and just like how she initially reacted with Tenya Iida, she doesn't immediately take it and simply looks at it, but unlike Iida, Monoma keeps still and waits patiently, all the while studying her carefully, for it is his forte to understand what is left unsaid or to read subtle body language.

Eventually, she draws back and glances up at him. Their eyes meet, and for a moment she seems to teeter between choices, balancing a knife's edge, and he wonders idly if he mentioned anything significant to evoke her caution.

Perhaps she has heard of his name and is aware of his quirk's ability, a plausible thought indeed, and he finds her hesitation to touch him understandable at that moment. He believes he is used to it, but for some reason he feels the faintest stab on his chest, a throbbing sensation gradually heating up, and he covers it up with a proud smirk, laced with venom and filled with disdain.

"That's fine, I understand." He tells her, withdrawing his offered hand then.

Yet before he can pull his hand back she suddenly grabs it with a surprise he himself is caught on, both her small hands wrapping themselves on his, almost squeezing and desperate, and she looks just as surprised once each touch registers on their minds. A spark follows, like electricity suddenly coursing through their skin, and without warning the ground breaks underneath their feet and a violent gale swirls around them. They both experience a sensation similar to a magnet repulsing another due to a like charge connection, and not later their joined hands separate and they tumble down to the opposite direction.

"Wha- What just happened?" The blond teen asks in confusion, his eyes hurriedly searching for the pale girl. "Is this your quirk?"

The girl looks just as dumbfounded, staring incredulously at her pale palms. She doesn't seem to be harmed in any way, yet she feels something magical has occurred.

They become silent for a long while, the noise from the commotion among the panicking students hurrying for emergency exits continues to rumble across the halls. Monoma settles with observing her and waits, because with the way his quirk works, he knows full well possessing no knowledge about the sort of quirk he just obtained spells for trouble, and lots of it if the quirk she wields turns out to be something powerful and dangerous if mishandled. He has no desire of injuring himself, nor injuring the true wielder herself, and above all, he doesn't want himself to make such a dumb blunder relating to his own quirk.

On the other hand, Anya sits on her buttocks dumbstruck and still dumbfounded. Her eyes flit to the blond teen's general direction, and then back to her hands repeatedly until she finally decides to keep her sights on him, and, "You… Is this your quirk?"

"No." He replies curtly, then slowly he begins to get back up on his two feet. After dusting himself, he looks down at her and states, "This is _your_ quirk and I demand you to explain it to me."

She frowns, evidently confused and, "What do you mean?"

He raises an eyebrow at that, and, "You mean you don't know?" He sounds as shocked as he looks, but quickly regains his composure and smirks, tilting his head which gives him a rather contemptuous look. "My quirk is Copy. I am capable of gaining full access to a quirk I copied after coming into physical contact with the user. I thought you already know since you hesitated to accept my hand earlier."

She can feel her eyes widen in surprise, a thrilling kind, the sort of feeling a miner gets when he finally digs up a diamond, the biggest and most lustrous kind after years of only finding rubble and mud. The longer she gazes at him, the more she seems to notice minute hints of his struggles - her similar struggle concerning physical contact - and when she recalls their initial encounter earlier she realizes how hurtful it must be when she has subjected him to a delay of a simple handshake, and this thought alone somehow made her tear up a little, for she understands it fully, the loneliness born out of deprivation, a starvation never addressed, a wish that cannot be granted.

When Monoma notices tiny beads of water forming under her eyelids he grows nervous, for he is unsure whether or not he had anything to do with it. Perhaps they are tears of fear, or maybe a nervous breakdown; he might never know unless he speaks up and does something to prevent her from crying.

Or not.

"Uh, what? You a _wimp_ or something? Then certainly you're not from the heroics department. Do you want to head over to the emergency exit, maybe? We can go together if you're _that_ afraid of what's happening, though I can't promise to protect you if you still won't talk about this quirk I copied from you."

His mockery pulls her out of her daze, and she quickly blinks the tears away before they can even stream down her cheeks. She pulls herself up and dusts her uniform, then finally she meets his gaze squarely and introduces herself.

"I am Anya Karino, the de-," she catches herself and bites her tongue, then immediately continues with a louder voice, "Reflection! Quirk! So, my quirk reflection means I can reverse anything with magnitude and direction coming towards me with a touch. It's sort of like _rejection_ too, because anything I deem harmful gets repelled as well."

Monoma lifts his hand and stares idly at it. "Reflection, huh?" He turns to an unsuspecting table and approaches it, gently placing a hand over it. For a second, nothing happens until it abruptly breaks down as if it has been pounded by a bulldozer, crumbling to the ground helplessly. "Interesting." He grins, amused by the power of his new acquaintance.

Anya watches him quietly in the background, admitting to herself that the teen is smarter than he looks, judging by the way he uses her quirk after a basic information about it is given. And he is not afraid to break the rules, she observes, for he proceeds to experiment with her quirk using the school's property, and she wonders how he can be so bold and eager to use such a quirk when clearly, she describes it as something unruly and unwanted.

Suddenly, he swings his hand towards her general direction and the wind blows briskly against her. He looks to her and says, "This is one powerful quirk you've got. Now tell me, are you with Class 1-A of the heroics department?"

She hears a faint antagonism from his voice, but she decides to ignore it and answers plainly, "No."

He raises a brow. "No? You expect me to believe you're from other departments? Like business, maybe?"

"I don't belong to any departments."

He narrows his eyes on her uniform, then scoffs. "I see. An intruder, then."

"I'm not."

"You know, your curt answers can only goad someone of little wit. Unfortunately for you, I have plenty of it."

"I am not your enemy." She says. Not for any discernible reason she can name - she has never cared for assurances before. _Curious_.

He snorts. "Of course I know that. Don't be ridiculous." He turns to her fully and spreads his arms open as he exclaims quite proudly and smugly, "I am simply gathering intelligence from a potential rival. Keeping your foes closer is somewhat better a strategy than making allies you cannot be sure to count on always, don't you agree?"

"Sounds to me you have little trust in your peers."

" _Colleagues_." He replies sharp, his smirk unflinching and gaze piercing.

For a while she stares at him, her mind blank and expression flat. And when she realizes the commotion out on the hall has settled down, Monoma turns his attention to it and changes their subject.

"Well, seems like they finally awaken to the truth of the matter." He remarks casually, puffing a small sigh then adds, "I'm glad it didn't take them so long, then again I'm still disappointed."

"From the way you speak, I can tell you've a bad personality," she observes then. "It speaks volumes about you belonging to the heroics department, where everyone strives to become great heroes of the future," she adds honestly, with a wry brand of humor she rarely succumbs to, which never lingers under the surface - a surprising side to her, in fact.

He quirks a smile at that. "You flatter me."

She frowns. "It wasn't meant to be one."

He laughs, the kind that makes fun of others. "Listen to yourself. Someone from Class 1-A ought to be busy one-upping all others instead of scolding little old me. Don't blame me if one from my class gets ahead of yours."

Anya looks at him and nods, " I agree."

"Huh?" Monoma utters in shock, completely surprised by her sudden approval, for it is a first for anyone to ever take his side, especially a stranger whom he ridicules and he shows an avid distrust.

The girl doesn't seem to mind his surprise, or perhaps she hasn't noticed yet and she takes the situation too calmly for the blond teen's comfort, her gaze cool gleaming with a pride which seems to stem from her power, or maybe it is just plain indifference, the type of boredom the powerful feels once they ran out of worthy opponents. Monoma leans more to the latter.

"I'll remember you, Neito Monoma." She tells him, and not later she offers him a small smile. "At this rate, there's another person who may stand a chance against me. I look forward to your progress."

=/=

Afternoon classes are over and the students are on their way to leave school for home. It is also the time with which Aizawa finds himself in the principal's office to discuss the matter with regards to the devil.

"Have you seen the gates, mister Aizawa?"

"I have."

Hefty metal gates protects the school and its security is by no means easy to bypass, especially by brute force. However, those very same thick, four-layered gates has been destroyed as if someone drilled through it, leaving a huge open hole, no, more than half of it pulverized, leaving behind a pile of ashes right next to it.

The humanoid mink stands by the huge glass window, keeping his back turned to the raven-haired hero as he stares at the horizon. A tranquil view spreads with a soft glowing light from the sky as the sun climbs below the horizon. The serene beauty of twilight descending upon their urban city has a strange soothing effect on him for the longest time, yet it seems this time it fails to still Nezu's quivering heart.

"The other hero teachers have seen it as well, and I have come to a conclusion that _someone_ instigated the whole affair. The way it is done, it's a clear declaration of some greater war. We must stay on guard."

Aizawa nods, knowing the principal does not need his verbal assent.

".…Anya is at school today, yes? Where is she?" Nezu asks, somewhat nervous.

"Lunch Rush said she stayed within the cafeteria when the alarm went off. " Aizawa replies immediately, hoping to make the mink feel at ease. "Although, since she was taken by surprise, she damaged one of the cafeteria's tables." He adds, his voice a bit hesitant yet he knows it is crucial to report every single event happening around the devil. "I met with her before I came here. It seems she also made a friend during the commotion, from Class 1-B, she says."

".…I see. That is…good to hear." The relief in his voice is audible. He turns his head slightly to the devil's guardian, and on his face a small, bitter smile plays for a split second. "I know she's more than capable of protecting herself from harm but it's a shame I do not have enough faith in her, that she will never consider villainy when presented to her."

Aizawa can comprehend the principal's thoughts, admitting to himself that he might even panic in the event Anya gets into contact with villains during the whole incident.

Since Anya turned thirteen, they granted her independence, allowing her to freely roam about the campus in the condition she stays away from the walls and the school gates. She has always been obedient, simply stepping as far as the courtyards whenever she takes walks around the campus. Not for long, Aizawa discovers Anya's odd fascination with the school's walls and gates, her gaze seems to linger on them quite a while longer than on the plants and trees she covets. The high, thick and sturdy walls serve to protect the children, and to intimidate any evildoers ever planning to infiltrate the haven of aspiring heroes, he has told her many times. They made U.A. High similar to a stronghold, for it is a foundation where heroes are made and molded into even greater champions of good.

Although Anya claims to understand and abides by all the restrictions bestowed upon her, Aizawa cannot help but remain wary of her. As her legal guardian, he spends a considerable amount of time with the pale girl than anyone else. There are plenty of occasions he admits he sees the girl like any normal child simply trying their best to live normally, but sometimes, sometimes he thinks the way how the gears of her mind turns is scary.

Once, he has seen Anya staring at the walls as if it was a detestable confinement, a fortress created solely to keep her in. Her eyes sad, gazing over the gates like a prisoner whose will to break out has died, but behind the salmon pools of her eyes blazed judgment and accusation, hot like iron fresh out of the forge ready to be struck and molded into something - something quite dangerous.

Aizawa shudders involuntarily at the memory.

"Ah, as I recall you're going to accompany me to my manor today, correct?" Nezu places his arms behind him and steps closer to the man. "This is a great opportunity for you to visit Anya casually. Usually you just fetch her during weekends to go out to town, or only for official business, yes?"

The principal walks past him without saying another word, to which the hero teacher tiredly closes his eyes, nodding his head slightly in affirmation. He then follows suit, tailing behind the humanoid mink whose dog-like paw turns the door's knob and pushes it open, ultimately leaving the room for the devil.

A large, two-story house stands tall before a sizable lawn with a garden filled with all sorts of trimmed bushes, various plantations, fruit trees and blooming flowers. The house, although large, doesn't seem intimidating. In fact, it looks neat and superficial, its brick walls painted in light colors of cream and peach and its roof tiles colored in faded tones of white and gray.

"I had the garden renovated a month after Anya began living in my house." Nezu remarks as they step into the yard, its greenery and vibrant colors soothing at the sight, as well as the fragrant aroma of the blooming flowers wafting to their noses when the breeze gently blows.

Aizawa quietly admires the landscape, subconsciously commending the pale girl's fondness for plant life. Knowing her mother worked as a florist, the raven-haired hero further admires the parent for choosing such a job amid all the hero craze in their day and age.

As soon as they entered the house, obsidian orbs glides around the whole place and the first thing catching his eyes is the white, tall shelves surrounding an archway connecting to another room. The shelves are filled with books, and the only free spaces left at the top of each shelf are occupied by antique vases. A flat screen television hangs by the wall next to the shelf and at the opposite end facing it is a wide white-cemented fireplace with an abstract painting hanging above it. At the center are four single couches arranged in a circle facing a round coffee table, and at the ceiling hangs a simple chandelier, its four candle-shaped bulbs glowing brightly over the four horns holding them.

"Welcome, master Nezu and sir Eraser Head."

The whole interior design is simple yet eye-catching that Aizawa fails to notice the maidservant who bows her head in courtesy of welcoming them into the mansion.

"Where's Anya?" Nezu asks.

The maidservant lifts her head and solemnly replies. "The lady is in her room. She says to call her when dinner is ready."

"All right. Thank you for your hard work." The principal waves the maidservant aside to stride over to the archway which conceals the staircase leading up to the second floor. He beckons Aizawa to follow him, and soon the two ascends to the upper floor.

The corridor is quite short, and the door situated at the furthest part of it leads to Anya's room.

Three gentle knocks established their presence to the person on the other side of the door. With a brief message regarding who are entering, Nezu turns the knob and pushes the door open, waving the raven-haired hero through into a whole new side of the devil.

The room is big and quaint; the bed seemingly able to accommodate two people, invitingly cozy, and on top of it comfortably sits the subject of his interest, her uniform changed into a pure white dress which seems to blend perfectly with the mattress's similarly white sheets.

Anya tears her gaze away from the wide window leading to a small balcony which she has left open to allow the gentle warm breeze enter her room.

"Ah, uncle Nezu. Shota." Anya addresses each adult respectively as she regards them with a faint smile.

"How are you doing, Anya? It's rare for you to go straight to your room coming from school." Nezu says, taking a seat on the stool by the bedside table.

"I just felt like resting today." She replies with a flat tone.

Aizawa's face crumples as he frowns in what might have been construed as concern. "The strain from yesterday."

She doesn't react to that, then after a moment of silence she sighs. "…I guess so. It's my first time fighting for almost an hour straight."

"Why did you participate, Anya? I made it clear _I'm_ the only one who gets to decide whether the students can challenge you or not."

Anya visibly winces at the acidity of her guardian's sharp tone. However, she stubbornly holds his gaze and, "They proposed a doable _and_ reasonable condition for winning against me. It's their whole idea, not All Might's, and I respect them for that. So, I granted them a chance to beat me in their game."

Aizawa smirks. "Oh, so now you respect them?" He snorts. "You're such a fickle thing. How irrational."

"It doesn't sound like a bad thing, Eraser. It's okay." Nezu interjects. "And this might also improve Anya's stamina. Though I would still suggest you avoid overexerting yourself, child."

Anya nods. "As you say, uncle."

"From now on, I don't mind if you join Class 1-A on their battle training." Nezu declares, his gaze resting over Aizawa's general direction. "You can tell the other teachers too, that they are allowed to incorporate Anya during Class 1-A's battle training."

"Just Class 1-A?" Anya asks, almost sounding offended. "Maybe you haven't heard yet, uncle Nezu, but I made a friend from Class 1-B."

The mink has already heard of it, but hearing it straight from the devil herself seems to shock him immensely that he is rendered speechless for a moment. He exhales then, suddenly conscious of the breath he has been holding in then. "I see. Forgive me, Anya. I must say, I am glad you've made a friend. If it is so, then you may also join Class 1-B's battle training. However, mister Aizawa is the only person I am granting the power to make this call. Do you understand, Anya?"

Her lips pout, wanting to whine yet she doesn't. Then shortly she nods, although evidently reluctant.

* * *

 **EXTRA** **: A peek from her past**

A quirk is a special, superhuman ability an individual can posses. Quirks are generally unique to their users, and it is said that these typically manifest in children by the age of four at the latest.

However, people without quirks still exist in this era of superheroes. They have become increasingly rare as time passed, and although obscured, the problem with discrimination between individuals possessing quirks and individuals having no quirk is still present.

One such person is Anya Karino, whose quirk failed to show itself when she reached four. She got bullied for a while, but her parents' support, the teachers' quick action and a few of her friends taking her side got her through it.

However, as days turned to weeks, to months, and to a year, her parents saw a drastic, although gradual, change in Anya's appearance. Her previous brown skin eventually lightened up, it was especially evident at the parts of her body that were consistently covered by her clothes. Another year and they noticed her hair growing silver roots, and next was her golden irises, its hue occasionally glimmering in shades of a lighter yellow color then to pale pink when light reflected on them.

And then when she turned six, her skin showed no traces of her previous brown complexion, silver hair completely grown out to a considerable length, forcing her to opt for a haircut as she found it unpleasant to see two color shades on her hair, and her golden irises were replaced by salmon pink ones entirely.

Together with the complete transformation of her image, her quirk also manifested in the form of tactile telekinesis, an ability to manipulate objects through touch.

And then in another year, Anya later discovers that the power and ability of her quirk isn't only all that, ultimately resulting into a tragedy that carved a permanent scar in her memory forever.

* * *

 **A/N: Revised/Rewritten done! (01-26-2020)**

 **Finally I am able to insert my best boy Monoma! Yahoo! So, as you all may have guessed, Monoma will play a major role to our overpowered OC's character development. I'm thinking of making a relationship development between the two as well so please do assume so in my future updates. I've only known Monoma from the MHA anime, I haven't read far into the manga yet so Monoma might come off as out-of-character, but I shall do my best to write my best boy properly! That is all. Thank you very much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Have a nice day!**


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